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The Value of Reference Genomes in the Conservation of Threatened Species

Conservation initiatives are now more crucial than ever—over a million plant and animal species are at risk of extinction over the coming decades. The genetic management of threatened species held in insurance programs is recommended; however, few are taking advantage of the full range of genomic te...

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Autores principales: Brandies, Parice, Peel, Emma, Hogg, Carolyn J., Belov, Katherine
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6895880/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31717707
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/genes10110846
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author Brandies, Parice
Peel, Emma
Hogg, Carolyn J.
Belov, Katherine
author_facet Brandies, Parice
Peel, Emma
Hogg, Carolyn J.
Belov, Katherine
author_sort Brandies, Parice
collection PubMed
description Conservation initiatives are now more crucial than ever—over a million plant and animal species are at risk of extinction over the coming decades. The genetic management of threatened species held in insurance programs is recommended; however, few are taking advantage of the full range of genomic technologies available today. Less than 1% of the 13505 species currently listed as threated by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) have a published genome. While there has been much discussion in the literature about the importance of genomics for conservation, there are limited examples of how having a reference genome has changed conservation management practice. The Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii), is an endangered Australian marsupial, threatened by an infectious clonal cancer devil facial tumor disease (DFTD). Populations have declined by 80% since the disease was first recorded in 1996. A reference genome for this species was published in 2012 and has been crucial for understanding DFTD and the management of the species in the wild. Here we use the Tasmanian devil as an example of how a reference genome has influenced management actions in the conservation of a species.
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spelling pubmed-68958802019-12-24 The Value of Reference Genomes in the Conservation of Threatened Species Brandies, Parice Peel, Emma Hogg, Carolyn J. Belov, Katherine Genes (Basel) Review Conservation initiatives are now more crucial than ever—over a million plant and animal species are at risk of extinction over the coming decades. The genetic management of threatened species held in insurance programs is recommended; however, few are taking advantage of the full range of genomic technologies available today. Less than 1% of the 13505 species currently listed as threated by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) have a published genome. While there has been much discussion in the literature about the importance of genomics for conservation, there are limited examples of how having a reference genome has changed conservation management practice. The Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii), is an endangered Australian marsupial, threatened by an infectious clonal cancer devil facial tumor disease (DFTD). Populations have declined by 80% since the disease was first recorded in 1996. A reference genome for this species was published in 2012 and has been crucial for understanding DFTD and the management of the species in the wild. Here we use the Tasmanian devil as an example of how a reference genome has influenced management actions in the conservation of a species. MDPI 2019-10-25 /pmc/articles/PMC6895880/ /pubmed/31717707 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/genes10110846 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Brandies, Parice
Peel, Emma
Hogg, Carolyn J.
Belov, Katherine
The Value of Reference Genomes in the Conservation of Threatened Species
title The Value of Reference Genomes in the Conservation of Threatened Species
title_full The Value of Reference Genomes in the Conservation of Threatened Species
title_fullStr The Value of Reference Genomes in the Conservation of Threatened Species
title_full_unstemmed The Value of Reference Genomes in the Conservation of Threatened Species
title_short The Value of Reference Genomes in the Conservation of Threatened Species
title_sort value of reference genomes in the conservation of threatened species
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6895880/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31717707
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/genes10110846
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