• HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
Saturday, February 27, 2021
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Biology

Don’t focus on genetic diversity to save our species

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
February 23, 2021
in Biology
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

IMAGE

Credit: Image by Philip Barrington from Pixabay.

Scientists at the University of Adelaide have challenged the common assumption that genetic diversity of a species is a key indicator of extinction risk.

Published in the journal PNAS, the scientists demonstrate that there is no simple relationship between genetic diversity and species survival. But, Dr Joao Teixeira and Dr Christian Huber from the University of Adelaide’s School of Biological Sciences conclude, the focus shouldn’t be on genetic diversity anyway, it should be on habitat protection.

“Nature is being destroyed by humans at a rate never seen before,” says computational biologist Dr Huber. “We burn forests, over-fish our seas and destroy wild areas and it’s estimated that about one million species are threatened with extinction, some within decades.

“Although researchers agree that this rapid decline of species numbers has to be stopped, how that’s best tackled is still open to debate.

“Conservation geneticists consider genetic diversity as an important way to assess if a species is threatened by extinction. The view is that as long as individuals are genetically different from each other (having high genetic diversity), there will always be individuals with the right genetic makeup to survive under adverse conditions. On the other hand, if a species shows little genetic diversity, it’s believed that the species is fragile and likely to become extinct.”

Dr Teixeira and Dr Huber have compiled a wide range of evidence from laboratory experiments, field studies, and evolutionary theory which suggests a need for re-evaluation on the measurement and interpretation of genetic diversity for conservation.

“In this paper, we’ve shown that this simple relationship between genetic diversity and survival is often wrong,” says population geneticist Dr Teixeira. “Most of the genetic diversity within a genome is ‘neutral’, meaning that it neither improves nor diminishes an individual’s ability to survive or produce offspring. On the other hand, the genetic diversity that does affect survival is found in very specific regions of the genome and is not at all correlated with genome-wide genetic diversity.

“Researchers need to investigate for each species individually which genetic mutations allow the species to thrive and which mutations lead to diseases that can threaten the species. There is certainly no simple ‘one-size-fits-all’ measure of extinction risk.”

The authors finally warn that, although genetics can play an important role in certain cases, fixating on genetic diversity shifts much-needed focus away from the much bigger problem: habitat destruction.

“Since the year 2000, wildlife habitat about eight times the area of the UK has been lost,” says Dr Huber. “Without habitat, there is no wildlife. And without wildlife and the ecosystem services that humans rely on, we are ultimately risking our own security and survival here on Earth.”

###

Media Contact
Dr Christian Huber, School of Biological Sciences, The Unive
[email protected]

Original Source

https://www.adelaide.edu.au/newsroom/news/list/2021/02/23/dont-focus-on-genetic-diversity-to-save-our-species

Related Journal Article

http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2015096118

Tags: BiologyGeneticsNatureZoology/Veterinary Science
Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

IMAGE

Predicts the onset of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) using deep learning-based Splice-AI

February 27, 2021
IMAGE

Cerium sidelines silver to make drug precursor

February 26, 2021

Agents of food-borne zoonoses confirmed to parasitise newly-recorded in Thailand snails

February 26, 2021

Dinosaur species: ‘Everyone’s unique’

February 26, 2021

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

POPULAR NEWS

  • IMAGE

    Terahertz accelerates beyond 5G towards 6G

    638 shares
    Share 255 Tweet 160
  • People living with HIV face premature heart disease and barriers to care

    82 shares
    Share 33 Tweet 21
  • Global analysis suggests COVID-19 is seasonal

    38 shares
    Share 15 Tweet 10
  • HIV: an innovative therapeutic breakthrough to optimize the immune system

    35 shares
    Share 14 Tweet 9

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Tags

Technology/Engineering/Computer ScienceMedicine/HealthcancerInfectious/Emerging DiseasesEcology/EnvironmentMaterialsCell BiologyClimate ChangeBiologyGeneticsPublic HealthChemistry/Physics/Materials Sciences

Recent Posts

  • Predicts the onset of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) using deep learning-based Splice-AI
  • When foams collapse (and when they don’t)
  • UTA researcher explores effects of trauma at the cellular, tissue levels of the brain
  • Picture books can boost physical activity for youth with autism
  • Contact Us

© 2019 Bioengineer.org - Biotechnology news by Science Magazine - Scienmag.

No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

© 2019 Bioengineer.org - Biotechnology news by Science Magazine - Scienmag.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In