Is It Time for Synthetic Biodiversity Conservation?

Authors

Antoinette J. Piaggio, USDA/APHIS/WS National Wildlife Research CenterFollow
Gernot Segelbacher, University of Freiburg
Philip J. Seddon, University of Otago
Luke Alphey, Arthropod Genetics Group, The Pirbright Institute
Elizabeth L. Bennett, Wildlife Conservation Society
Robert H. Carlson, Biodesic
Robert M. Friedman, J. Craig Venter Institute
Dona Kanavy, Texas A&M University
Ryan Phelan, Revive and Restore
Kent H. Redford, Archipelago Consulting
Marina Rosales, Federico Villarreal National University
Lydia Slobodian, International Union for Conservation of Nature
Keith Wheeler, ZedX Inc.

Date of this Version

2017

Citation

Trends in Ecology & Evolution, February 2017, Vol. 32, No. 2

Comments

U.S. Government Work

Abstract

Evidence indicates that, despite some critical successes, current conservation approaches are not slowing the overall rate of biodiversity loss. The field of synthetic biology, which is capable of altering natural genomes with extremely precise editing, might offer the potential to resolve some intractable conservation problems (e.g., invasive species or pathogens). However, it is our opinion that there has been insufficient engagement by the conservation community with practitioners of synthetic biology. We contend that rapid, large-scale engagement of these two communities is urgently needed to avoid unintended and deleterious ecological consequences. To this point we describe case studies where synthetic biology is currently being applied to conservation, and we highlight the benefits to conservation biologists from engaging with this emerging technology.