Time To Sequence The 'red And The Dead'

摘要

On the first weekend in April, a couple of dozen leading molecular biologists, conservationist's and museum curators gathered at Pennsylvania State University in University Park to brainstorm about ways of harnessing the power of the latest molecular sequencing techniques to conservation goals. "The cost of genome sequencing is falling at an extraordinary rate," says workshop co-organizer Stephan Schuster of Penn State University, who was a driving force behind the 2008 sequencing of a woolly-mammoth genome, the first complete genome of an extinct animal. "Now it is possible to entertain sequencing the genomes of other extinct and endangered species, and the benefits could be huge." Referring to the 'Red List' of highly endangered species drawn up by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Schuster suggests that researchers should plan for sequencing "the red and the dead: a suite of carefully chosen endangered and extinct species."