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Bruford MW, Ginja C, Hoffmann I, Joost S, Orozco-terWengel P, Alberto FJ, Amaral AJ, Barbato M, Biscarini F, Colli L, Costa M, Curik I, Duruz S, Ferenčaković M, Fischer D, Fitak R, Groeneveld LF, Hall SJG, Hanotte O, Hassan FU, Helsen P, Iacolina L, Kantanen J, Leempoel K, Lenstra JA, Ajmone-Marsan P, Masembe C, Megens HJ, Miele M, Neuditschko M, Nicolazzi EL, Pompanon F, Roosen J, Sevane N, Smetko A, Štambuk A, Streeter I, Stucki S, Supakorn C, Telo Da Gama L, Tixier-Boichard M, Wegmann D, Zhan X. Prospects and challenges for the conservation of farm animal genomic resources, 2015-2025. Front Genet 2015; 6:314. [PMID: 26539210 PMCID: PMC4612686 DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2015.00314] [Citation(s) in RCA: 55] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/26/2015] [Accepted: 10/05/2015] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Livestock conservation practice is changing rapidly in light of policy developments, climate change and diversifying market demands. The last decade has seen a step change in technology and analytical approaches available to define, manage and conserve Farm Animal Genomic Resources (FAnGR). However, these rapid changes pose challenges for FAnGR conservation in terms of technological continuity, analytical capacity and integrative methodologies needed to fully exploit new, multidimensional data. The final conference of the ESF Genomic Resources program aimed to address these interdisciplinary problems in an attempt to contribute to the agenda for research and policy development directions during the coming decade. By 2020, according to the Convention on Biodiversity's Aichi Target 13, signatories should ensure that “…the genetic diversity of …farmed and domesticated animals and of wild relatives …is maintained, and strategies have been developed and implemented for minimizing genetic erosion and safeguarding their genetic diversity.” However, the real extent of genetic erosion is very difficult to measure using current data. Therefore, this challenging target demands better coverage, understanding and utilization of genomic and environmental data, the development of optimized ways to integrate these data with social and other sciences and policy analysis to enable more flexible, evidence-based models to underpin FAnGR conservation. At the conference, we attempted to identify the most important problems for effective livestock genomic resource conservation during the next decade. Twenty priority questions were identified that could be broadly categorized into challenges related to methodology, analytical approaches, data management and conservation. It should be acknowledged here that while the focus of our meeting was predominantly around genetics, genomics and animal science, many of the practical challenges facing conservation of genomic resources are societal in origin and are predicated on the value (e.g., socio-economic and cultural) of these resources to farmers, rural communities and society as a whole. The overall conclusion is that despite the fact that the livestock sector has been relatively well-organized in the application of genetic methodologies to date, there is still a large gap between the current state-of-the-art in the use of tools to characterize genomic resources and its application to many non-commercial and local breeds, hampering the consistent utilization of genetic and genomic data as indicators of genetic erosion and diversity. The livestock genomic sector therefore needs to make a concerted effort in the coming decade to enable to the democratization of the powerful tools that are now at its disposal, and to ensure that they are applied in the context of breed conservation as well as development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael W Bruford
- School of Biosciences, Cardiff University Cardiff, UK ; Sustainable Places Research Institute, Cardiff University Cardiff, UK
| | - Catarina Ginja
- Faculdade de Ciências, Centro de Ecologia, Evolução e Alterações Ambientais (CE3C), Universidade de Lisboa Lisboa, Portugal ; Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos (CIBIO-InBIO), Universidade do Porto, Campus Agrário de Vairão Portugal
| | - Irene Hoffmann
- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Animal Genetic Resources Branch, Animal Production and Health Division Rome, Italy
| | - Stéphane Joost
- Laboratory of Geographic Information Systems (LASIG), School of Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Lausanne, Switzerland
| | | | - Florian J Alberto
- Laboratoire d'Ecologie Alpine, Université Grenoble Alpes Grenoble, France
| | - Andreia J Amaral
- Faculty of Sciences, BioISI- Biosystems and Integrative Sciences Institute, University of Lisbon Campo Grande, Portugal
| | - Mario Barbato
- School of Biosciences, Cardiff University Cardiff, UK
| | | | - Licia Colli
- BioDNA Centro di Ricerca sulla Biodiversità a sul DNA Antico, Istituto di Zootecnica, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Piacenza Italy
| | - Mafalda Costa
- School of Biosciences, Cardiff University Cardiff, UK
| | - Ino Curik
- Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zagreb Zagreb, Croatia
| | - Solange Duruz
- Laboratory of Geographic Information Systems (LASIG), School of Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Lausanne, Switzerland
| | | | - Daniel Fischer
- Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Green Technology Jokioinen, Finland
| | - Robert Fitak
- Institut für Populationsgenetik Vetmeduni, Vienna, Austria
| | | | | | - Olivier Hanotte
- School of Life Sciences, University of Nottingham Nottingham, UK
| | - Faiz-Ul Hassan
- School of Life Sciences, University of Nottingham Nottingham, UK ; Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan
| | - Philippe Helsen
- Centre for Research and Conservation, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Laura Iacolina
- Department of Chemistry and Bioscience, Aalborg University Aalborg, Denmark
| | - Juha Kantanen
- Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Green Technology Jokioinen, Finland ; Department of Biology, University of Eastern Finland Kuopio, Finland
| | - Kevin Leempoel
- Laboratory of Geographic Information Systems (LASIG), School of Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Lausanne, Switzerland
| | | | - Paolo Ajmone-Marsan
- BioDNA Centro di Ricerca sulla Biodiversità a sul DNA Antico, Istituto di Zootecnica, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Piacenza Italy
| | - Charles Masembe
- Institute of the Environment and Natural Resources, Makerere University Kampala, Uganda
| | - Hendrik-Jan Megens
- Animal Breeding and Genomics Centre, Wageningen University Wageningen, Netherlands
| | - Mara Miele
- School of Planning and Geography, Cardiff University Cardiff, UK
| | | | | | - François Pompanon
- Laboratoire d'Ecologie Alpine, Université Grenoble Alpes Grenoble, France
| | - Jutta Roosen
- TUM School of Management, Technische Universität München Munich, Germany
| | - Natalia Sevane
- Department of Animal Production, Veterinary Faculty, Universidad Complutense de Madrid Madrid, Spain
| | | | - Anamaria Štambuk
- Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb Zagreb, Croatia
| | - Ian Streeter
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus Hinxton, Cambridge, UK
| | - Sylvie Stucki
- Laboratory of Geographic Information Systems (LASIG), School of Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - China Supakorn
- School of Life Sciences, University of Nottingham Nottingham, UK ; School of Agricultural Technology, Walailak University Tha Sala, Thailand
| | - Luis Telo Da Gama
- Centre of Research in Animal Health (CIISA) - Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Lisbon Lisbon, Portugal
| | | | - Daniel Wegmann
- Department of Biology, University of Fribourg Fribourg, Switzerland
| | - Xiangjiang Zhan
- Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing, China ; Cardiff University - Institute of Zoology, Joint Laboratory for Biocomplexity Research Beijing, China
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