Ancient and historical DNA in conservation policy

Evelyn L Jensen; David Díez-Del-Molino; M Thomas P Gilbert; Laura D Bertola; Filipa Borges; Vlatka Cubric-Curik; Miguel de Navascués; Peter Frandsen; Myriam Heuertz; Christina Hvilsom; Belén Jiménez-Mena; Antti Miettinen; Markus Moest; Patrícia Pečnerová; Ian Barnes; Cristiano Vernesi

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2021.12.010

Ancient and historical DNA in conservation policy

Trends Ecol Evol. 2022 May;37(5):420-429. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2021.12.010. Epub 2022 Jan 24.

Authors

Evelyn L Jensen¹, David Díez-Del-Molino², M Thomas P Gilbert³, Laura D Bertola⁴, Filipa Borges⁵, Vlatka Cubric-Curik⁶, Miguel de Navascués⁷, Peter Frandsen⁸, Myriam Heuertz⁹, Christina Hvilsom⁸, Belén Jiménez-Mena¹⁰, Antti Miettinen¹¹, Markus Moest¹², Patrícia Pečnerová⁴, Ian Barnes¹³, Cristiano Vernesi¹⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK. Electronic address: evelyn.jensen@newcastle.ac.uk.
² Centre for Palaeogenetics, Stockholm, Sweden; Department of Bioinformatics and Genetics, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, Sweden.
³ Center for Evolutionary Hologenomics, The GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark; University Museum, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway.
⁴ Section for Computational and RNA Biology, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
⁵ Centre for Research in Anthropology (CRIA), Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal; Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK; Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources (CIBIO/InBIO), Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal; Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Oeiras, Portugal.
⁶ Department of Animal Science, University of Zagreb Faculty of Agriculture, Zagreb, Croatia.
⁷ CBGP, INRAE, CIRAD, IRD, Montpellier SupAgro, University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France; Human Evolution, Department of Organismal Biology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
⁸ Copenhagen Zoo, Frederiksberg, Denmark.
⁹ INRAE, University of Bordeaux, Biogeco, 33610 Cestas, France.
¹⁰ Section for Marine Living Resources, National Institute of Aquatic Resources, Technical University of Denmark, Silkeborg, Denmark.
¹¹ Organismal and Evolutionary Biology Research Programme, Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
¹² Molecular Ecology Group, Department of Ecology, University of Innsbruck, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
¹³ Department of Earth Sciences, Natural History Museum, London, UK.
¹⁴ Forest Ecology Unit Research and Innovation Centre - Fondazione Edmund Machvia E. Mach, 1-San Michele all'Adige, 38010 TN, Italy.

PMID: 35086740
DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2021.12.010

Abstract

Although genetic diversity has been recognized as a key component of biodiversity since the first Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1993, it has rarely been included in conservation policies and regulations. Even less appreciated is the role that ancient and historical DNA (aDNA and hDNA, respectively) could play in unlocking the temporal dimension of genetic diversity, allowing key conservation issues to be resolved, including setting baselines for intraspecies genetic diversity, estimating changes in effective population size (N_e), and identifying the genealogical continuity of populations. Here, we discuss how genetic information from ancient and historical specimens can play a central role in preserving biodiversity and highlight specific conservation policies that could incorporate such data to help countries meet their CBD obligations.

Keywords: biodiversity; conservation genetics; genetic diversity; population genomics.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Biodiversity*
Conservation of Natural Resources*
DNA
Policy

Substances

DNA