Over a fifth of reptile species are classified as ‘Threatened’ and conservation efforts, especially those aimed at recovery of isolated or fragmented populations, will require genetic and genomic data and resources. Shed skins of snakes and other reptiles contain DNA; are a safe and ethical way of non-invasively sampling large numbers of individuals; and provide a simple mechanism by which to involve the public in scientific research. Here we test whether the DNA in dried shed skin is suitable for reduced representation sequencing approaches, specifically genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS). Shed skin-derived libraries resulted in fewer sequenced reads than those from snap-frozen muscle samples, and contained slightly fewer variants (70,685 SNPs versus 97,724), but this issue can easily be rectified with deeper sequencing of shed skin-derived libraries. Skin-derived libraries also have a very slight (but significantly different) profile of transitions and transversions, most likely as a result of DNA damage, but the impact of this is minimal given the large number of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) involved. SNP density tends to scale with chromosome length, and microchromosomes have a significantly higher SNP density than macrochromosomes, most likely because of their higher GC content. Overall, shed skin provides DNA of sufficient quality and quantity for the identification of large number of SNPs, but requires greater sequencing depth, and consideration of the GC richness of microchromosomes when selecting restriction enzymes.

超过五分之一的爬行动物物种被归类为“受威胁”，保护工作，特别是那些旨在恢复孤立或支离破碎的种群的工作，将需要遗传和基因组数据和资源。蛇和其他爬行动物的蜕皮含有 DNA；是一种对大量个体进行非侵入性采样的安全且合乎道德的方式；并提供一个简单的机制让公众参与科学研究。在这里，我们测试干燥蜕皮中的 DNA 是否适合简化代表性测序方法，特别是测序基因分型 (GBS)。与速冻肌肉样本相比，脱落皮肤来源的文库产生的测序读数较少，并且包含的​​变异略少（70,685 个 SNP 对 97,724 个），但这个问题可以通过对脱落皮肤来源的文库进行更深入的测序来轻松纠正。皮肤来源的文库也具有非常轻微（但显着不同）的转换和颠换特征，很可能是由于 DNA 损伤造成的，但考虑到涉及大量的单核苷酸多态性 (SNP)，这种影响很小。SNP 密度往往随染色体长度而变化，微染色体的 SNP 密度明显高于大染色体，很可能是因为它们的 GC 含量较高。总体而言，脱落的皮肤提供了足够质量和数量的DNA来鉴定大量SNP，但需要更大的测序深度，并且在选择限制性酶时需要考虑微染色体的GC丰富度。但考虑到涉及大量单核苷酸多态性 (SNP)，这种影响微乎其微。SNP 密度往往随染色体长度而变化，微染色体的 SNP 密度明显高于大染色体，很可能是因为它们的 GC 含量较高。总体而言，脱落的皮肤提供了足够质量和数量的DNA来鉴定大量SNP，但需要更大的测序深度，并且在选择限制性酶时需要考虑微染色体的GC丰富度。但考虑到涉及大量单核苷酸多态性 (SNP)，这种影响微乎其微。SNP 密度往往随染色体长度而变化，微染色体的 SNP 密度明显高于大染色体，很可能是因为它们的 GC 含量较高。总体而言，脱落的皮肤提供了足够质量和数量的DNA来鉴定大量SNP，但需要更大的测序深度，并且在选择限制性酶时需要考虑微染色体的GC丰富度。