Ancient and historical DNA in conservation policy

Evelyn Jensen (1) , David Díez-Del-Molino (2, 3) , M. Thomas P. Gilbert (4, 5) , Laura Bertola (4) , Filipa Borges (6, 7, 8) , Vlatka Cubric-Curik (9) , Miguel de Navascués (10) , Peter Frandsen (11) , Myriam Heuertz (12) , Christina Hvilsom (11) , Belén Jiménez-Mena (13) , Antti Miettinen (14) , Markus Moest (15) , Patrícia Pečnerová (4) , Ian Barnes (16) , Cristiano Vernesi (17)

1 Newcastle University [Newcastle]
2 Centre for Palaeogenetics
3 NRM - Swedish Museum of Natural History
4 UCPH - University of Copenhagen = Københavns Universitet
5 NTNU - Norwegian University of Science and Technology
6 NOVA - Universidade Nova de Lisboa = NOVA University Lisbon
7 University of Exeter
8 Universidade do Porto = University of Porto
9 University of Zagreb
10 UMR CBGP - Centre de Biologie pour la Gestion des Populations
11 Copenhagen Zoo
12 BioGeCo - Biodiversité, Gènes & Communautés
13 DTU - Danmarks Tekniske Universitet = Technical University of Denmark
14 Helsingin yliopisto = Helsingfors universitet = University of Helsinki
15 Leopold Franzens Universität Innsbruck - University of Innsbruck
16 Natural History Museum [Oslo]
17 FEM - Fondazione Edmund Mach - Edmund Mach Foundation [Italie]

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.

Mots clés: ADN; BIODIVERSITE

Domaines: Sciences de l'environnement

Evelyn Jensen, David Díez-Del-Molino, M. Thomas P. Gilbert, Laura Bertola, Filipa Borges, et al.. Ancient and historical DNA in conservation policy. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 2022, 37 (5), pp.420 - 429. ⟨10.1016/j.tree.2021.12.010⟩. ⟨hal-03684009⟩