It’s time to celebrate! Linking genetic resources to the Mexican National Biological Collections custodied by the Institute of Biology of the National Autonomous University of Mexico

The Instituto de Biología of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (IBUNAM) celebrates 95 years as a leading institution on biodiversity research. Besides developing frontier research, training of human resources, and public science communication, IBUNAM houses 10 National Zoological Collections and the National Herbarium of Mexico (MEXU). The specimens deposited in these collections are the foundation of numerous biological studies, from which ample genetic resources have been generated. Here we present an initial effort to link the specimens deposited at the National Biological Collections housed at IBUNAM to their public genetic resources, using MEXU’s Collection of Types of Vascular Plants as proof of concept. First, a list of the type specimens was retrieved from IBdata, the web system for consulting the records of the biological collections housed at IBUNAM. Then, the interface Entrez Programming Utilities of GenBank was used to search for the available genetic resources associated with the type specimens. New fields were incorporated into IBdata to facilitate access to the identified genetic resources. Future initiatives should promote access to the public metadata (e.g., molecular, morphological) associated to specimens of the biological collections housed at IBUNAM.