Filling the gap: DNA barcode generation for the missing ground beetle species (Coleoptera: Carabidae) of Germany using genome skimming

During the last years, DNA barcoding has become the most popular approach in molecular species identification.Within the framework of the establishment of a comprehensive sequence library for the ground beetles of Germany, DNA barcodes have already been generated for numerous species in the past.However, barcodes for several rare and/or threatened species are still missing.Typically, for these species, it is necessary to work-up old museum specimens, which in turn cannot be processed by classical molecular methods effectively.Here we present the application of a low-coverage genome skimming approach to reconstruct the DNA barcode fragment of old carabid specimens, exemplary for more than 30 year's old specimen of the intertidal ground beetle Bembidion (Cillenus) laterale (Samouelle, 1819).In addition to the generation of the DNA barcode fragment, we also succeeded in reconstructing the entire mitochondrial genome as well as several nuclear multi-copy genes as byproduct (rRNA genes, histone genes).Our results clearly demonstrate the efficiency of modern highthroughput sequencing technologies in unlocking molecular information from historical museum specimens.Such approaches go far beyond the generation of DNA barcodes and can also be applied in other areas, e.g., evolutionary biological or phylogenetic studies.