Vortex fluidics-mediated DNA rescue from formalin-fixed museum specimens

PONE-D-19-31335

Dear Dr. Weiss,

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Reviewers' comments:

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Comments to the Author

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Reviewer #1: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

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Reviewer #1: The manuscript is clear and well written, and the results easily repeatable from the detail provided. The authors address an important issue that is of increasing interest and hopefully becoming technologically more and more feasible as methods develop. If we can find methodology that would allow regular and at least semi-consistent amplification of DNA from formalin fixed tissues, it would absolutely change the way we can use the extensive museum collections available around the world and the questions we can ask about biology of the animals preserved there. Because of this, the paper is significant in that it contributes substantially to the testing of methods to optimize recovery of DNA from formalin fixed specimens. The methods would require substantial refinement to work on most formalin fixed material given the large amount of tissue tested 1 g of muscle and the short duration of time the tested tissue was in formalin, but none the less the contribution and idea are significant and should be published. They have provided an important first step toward refining methods for using formalin fixed specimens for genetic studies and should be published without any major revisions. It was not clear what the contributions of the many authors were and why such a simple and straightforward project required so many authors, but that is up to them to decide who contributed to the study.

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Reviewer #1: No