Digitisation of the Natural History Museum's collection of Dalbergia, Pterocarpus and the subtribe Phaseolinae (Fabaceae, Faboideae).

Background: In 2018, the Natural History Museum (NHMUK, herbarium code: BM) undertook a pilot digitisation project together with the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew (project Lead) and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh to collectively digitise non-type herbarium material of the subtribe Phaseolinae and the genera Dalbergia L.f. and Pterocarpus Jacq. (rosewoods and padauk), all from the economically important family of legumes (Leguminosae or Fabaceae).These taxonomic groups were chosen to provide specimen data for two potential use cases: 1) to support the development of dry beans as a sustainable and resilient crop; 2) to aid conservation and sustainable use of rosewoods and padauk. Collectively, these use case studies support the aims of the UK's Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA)-allocated, Official Development Assistance (ODA) funding. New information: We present the images and metadata for 11,222 NHMUK specimens. The metadata includes label transcription and georeferencing, along with summary data on geographic, taxonomic, collector and temporal coverage. We also provide timings and the methodology for our transcription and georeferencing protocols. Approximately 35% of specimens digitised were collected in ODA-listed countries, in tropical Africa, but also in South East Asia and South America.

Charcot-Leyden crystals: do they exist in veterinary species? A case report and literature review.

The Charcot-Leyden crystal (CLC) is a major human eosinophil protein that readily crystallizes; these crystals are common in eosinophilic diseases. Although anecdotal existence of these crystals is known in veterinary pathology, definitive reports do not exist, to our knowledge. We identified eosinophilic crystals in a laryngeal myxosarcoma from a 2-y-old, spayed female, Labrador Retriever dog that were tentatively interpreted as CLCs. However, Ziehl-Neelsen acid-fast stain was negative, arguing against CLCs. The crystals stained red with Masson trichrome, precluding collagen. Periodic acid-Schiff and alcian blue were negative. The crystals stained positively with Okajima, and no myoglobin immunoreactivity was detected, supporting their identity as hemoglobin crystals. In the absence of a hematologic abnormality, these crystals were interpreted to be abnormal hemoglobin breakdown products. Protein sequence comparison was pursued to determine whether a protein similar to CLC exists in mammals. Only 3 nonhuman primate species, the Sumatran orangutan ( Pongo abelii), rhesus macaque ( Macaca mulatta), and cynomolgus monkey ( Macaca fascicularis), had a sequence similarity of >80%. Of the crystal-forming residues, 12 of 54 (22%) were different in the Sumatran orangutan and 15 of 54 (28%) were different in the Macaca spp., which may affect the crystallization process. The lack of reports of CLCs in nonhuman species and our results collectively suggest that CLCs are human-specific.