Conservation of animal genetic resources is highly relevant to ensure adaptability of IMAGE dialogue forum conducted a survey (led and analysed by partners from BOKU, Overall,\u00a0they considered the conservation of animal genetic resources to be very important and\u00a0were concerned about the loss of genetic resources. A combined approach is preferred The survey also suggested that access to stored resources should be free for breed societies\u00a0and public research institutions, however at the same time, there should also be a fee for\u00a0private research organisations and commercial companies.<\/p>\n A multi-actor governance should have authority in decision making, according to A large survey led by Wageningen Research from the Netherlands and IDELE from France, Although genetic\u00a0collections are mostly in the phase of storing unique genetic material, use is limited so far.\u00a0The IMAGE project is a great opportunity to shift the genetic collections from a static\u00a0perspective (such as ‘museum collections\u2019) to dynamic ones (such as \u2018bank collections\u2019,\u00a0where material flows in and out).<\/p>\n Animal gene banks are aimed at avoiding loss of resources and represent the so-called Partners of the IMAGE project from Scottish Rural Agriculture College and University of Essentially the model found alternative least cost collections relative to current breed Primordial germ cells (PGCs) are the reproductive diploid \u2018stem\u2019 cells in the embryo that will Many questions regarding the origin of collections, the genetic diversity and kinship, and DNA data can be derived from any tissue or semen collection as long as the quality of the In 2018, three post-graduate courses were launched. These courses enabled the training of Mich\u00e8le Tixier-Boichard<\/strong> A stakeholders survey has revealed positive attitude towards an increased use of bio banks to\u00a0conserve genetic diversity in the livestock sector. Conservation of animal genetic resources is highly relevant to ensure adaptability of livestock production systems. New technologies create novel opportunities in this field, however there are numerous different stakeholders (such as farmers, citizens, breeding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24433,785],"tags":[745,529],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nlivestock production systems. New technologies<\/a> create novel opportunities in this field,
\nhowever there are numerous different stakeholders (such as farmers, citizens, breeding
\ncompanies and rare breeds associations etc.), resulting in different needs and requirements.<\/p>\n
\nAustria, SAVE foundation and INRA, France), resulted in unraveling views and expectations
\nabout gene banks from a range of different stakeholders across Europe.<\/p>\n
\nassociating bio banks, genomic selection, and in-situ conservation. Bio banks should
\nprioritise endangered breeds but at the same time, remain open to most profitable animals.<\/p>\n
\nstakeholders, who also indicated that funding should come from public sources. This was
\nalso supported by the higher level of stakeholder trust in public organizations. Overall, there\u00a0is a generally positive attitude of stakeholders towards an increased use of bio banks to\u00a0conserve genetic diversity in the livestock sector, funded, and controlled by public
\ninstitutions and breed societies. Despite this, less consensus was observed regarding the use\u00a0of biotechnologies for preservation of genetic diversity, which is currently a hot topic under\u00a0study within IMAGE.<\/p>\nWhat is the current state of play for animal genetic collections in Europe: banks or\u00a0museums?<\/h3>\n
\nmapped the diversity and characteristics of European animal gene banks in 21 countries and\u00a0delivered key messages. These included the fact that many European countries are hosting\u00a0germplasm and genomic collections preserving farm animal breed diversity, but they differ a\u00a0lot in organization, rules and development phases. In addition to this, it was also found that\u00a0the main livestock species (the \u2018big six\u2019: cattle, sheep, goat, pig, horse and chickens) are well\u00a0represented in the collections, as there is an extreme wide array of breeds. Whereas, the\u00a0endangered breeds are the ones with the least amount of material.<\/p>\nCan we get more diversity conservation at a lower cost?<\/h3>\n
\noption value to society in terms of maintaining future breeding opportunities that might
\notherwise be foreclosed. Assuming an overall societal perspective, the questions arises of
\nwhat is the most diverse collection that can be planned at a reasonable cost? Candidate
\nbreeds must be selected to maximize a variety of possible future eventualities. The scale of
\nthis managerial challenge involves choosing among nearly 2000 candidate breeds from
\nvarious species and locations across Europe, while facing various budgetary constraints and
\nlimitations such as storage capacity, capital and specialised labor availability. Therefore, the
\nuse of optimisation techniques to address these challenges is needed.<\/p>\n
\nEdinburgh, developed a mathematical model to find the best way to select breeds, gene
\nbanks and collection strategies. The model maximises breed diversity, measured as the
\nnumber of preserved breeds, subject to a series of constraints. The model allowed IMAGE toconstruct \u2018efficiency curves\u2019 showing the supply of breed diversity potentially available for a\u00a0given budget. The analysis allowed for cross-country collections, as well as considering
\nregion-specific costs and cryogenic capacity differentials.<\/p>\n
\nallocations across eleven European gene banks: the overall estimated conservation costs of
\n(~\u20ac23.2m) could be reduced by around 20% by selecting cryogenic banks that have
\nrelatively low fixed and collection costs, and that are geographically closer to collection
\nregions. The results show how optimisation can potentially inform policy decisions on
\nefficient ex situ conservation (see doi:10.1111\/jbg.12368 for more information)<\/p>\nWhich biological resources: overcoming biological limitations to conserve embryos in\u00a0chickens<\/h3>\n
\nmake sperm or eggs in the adult animal. They can be collected from the peripheral
\ncirculation of an early stage chicken embryo (Fig. 2) and then transplanted to another
\nembryo such that the resulting adult host animal will produce offspring with the genotype
\nof the transplanted cells. Because it is impossible to store bird embryos (due to the
\ntelolecithal egg), PGC cryopreservation, followed by their reintroduction in host birds, is an
\nalternative solution to semen preservation for genetic diversity conservation programs.
\nPartners from University of Edinburgh, INRA France, and Hungarian Institute in Godollo,
\nhave developed cell culture for PGC and were able to grow up to 100,000 cells within one
\nmonth (see Fig. 2). These cells can then be safely cryopreserved in multiple independent
\ncryovials, before being used in a genetic reintroduction program. This has been applied to
\nthe cryopreservation of two traditional Hungarian breeds and the French \u2018Noire de Berry\u2019
\nbreed.<\/p>\nMining vital information from DNA sequence data<\/h3>\n
\neven phenotypic characteristics could be mined from the DNA. Whole genome sequence
\ndata contains signatures of demography, such as effective population size or geographic
\norigin, which could be valuable in terms of the conservation of genetic diversity. It can also
\nbe used to estimate genetic relatedness between animals, and therefore can be used to\u00a0guide breeding, e.g. to control inbreeding rates. Methods for inferring demographic
\nparameters and the signatures of artificial (\u2018breeding\u2019) selection are being applied to genetic\u00a0collections to establish their origin. Moreover, whole-genome DNA sequence information\u00a0contains the genetic blueprint for what makes an animal different from others of the same\u00a0species. Although predicting the animals\u2019 phenotype directly from sequence data is still far\u00a0into the future, we can currently start to predict some features, such as the presence of\u00a0deleterious mutations.<\/p>\n
\nDNA is still sufficient. Yet, obtaining good quality DNA from old semen samples has proven
\nto be difficult, and so storing blood samples in addition to semen samples is highly
\nrecommended. DNA sequence data is the same in nature for any cellular organism and
\ntherefore is a \u2018natural\u2019 information source that can be readily databased and compared. The
\nIMAGE project has generated sequencing data for 15 cattle, 100 pigs, 100 sheep, and 300
\nchickens from different gene banks. This will allow researchers and gene bank managers to
\nquantify the contributions of collections to local and global biodiversity.<\/p>\nTraining<\/h3>\n
\npostgraduate students and early career scientists in conservation genetics, population and
\ngene bank management, ex situ and in situ conservation. Two of these courses were
\norganised in third-countries (Argentina and Colombia) and attracted a large number of
\nparticipants, as well as provided attendance by live streaming to students in other South
\nAmerican countries who were unable to travel to the course venue. Another course was
\norganised in the Netherlands and attracted PhDs and young scientists from a broad group of\u00a0countries from EU and some non-EU countries. They had the chance to practise on their
\nown data sets and group work and were rated very positively by participants. New courses
\nwill take place in 2019 and 2020.<\/p>\n
\nIMAGE Project<\/strong>
\n+33 (0) 134 652 178<\/strong>
\nmichele.boichard@inra.fr<\/strong><\/a>
\nTweet @imageh2020<\/strong>
\nwww.imageh2020.eu<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"