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Albani Rocchetti G, Carta A, Mondoni A, Godefroid S, Davis CC, Caneva G, Albrecht MA, Alvarado K, Bijmoer R, Borosova R, Bräuchler C, Breman E, Briggs M, Buord S, Cave LH, Da Silva NG, Davey AH, Davies RM, Dickie JB, Fabillo M, Fleischmann A, Franks A, Hall G, Kantvilas G, Klak C, Liu U, Medina L, Reinhammar LG, Sebola RJ, Schönberger I, Sweeney P, Voglmayr H, White A, Wieringa JJ, Zippel E, Abeli T. Selecting the best candidates for resurrecting extinct-in-the-wild plants from herbaria. Nat Plants 2022; 8:1385-1393. [PMID: 36536014 DOI: 10.1038/s41477-022-01296-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/11/2022] [Accepted: 10/31/2022] [Indexed: 05/12/2023]
Abstract
Resurrecting extinct species is a fascinating and challenging idea for scientists and the general public. Whereas some theoretical progress has been made for animals, the resurrection of extinct plants (de-extinction sensu lato) is a relatively recently discussed topic. In this context, the term 'de-extinction' is used sensu lato to refer to the resurrection of 'extinct in the wild' species from seeds or tissues preserved in herbaria, as we acknowledge the current impossibility of knowing a priori whether a herbarium seed is alive and can germinate. In plants, this could be achieved by germinating or in vitro tissue-culturing old diaspores such as seeds or spores available in herbarium specimens. This paper reports the first list of plant de-extinction candidates based on the actual availability of seeds in herbarium specimens of globally extinct plants. We reviewed globally extinct seed plants using online resources and additional literature on national red lists, resulting in a list of 361 extinct taxa. We then proposed a method of prioritizing candidates for seed-plant de-extinction from diaspores found in herbarium specimens and complemented this with a phylogenetic approach to identify species that may maximize evolutionarily distinct features. Finally, combining data on seed storage behaviour and longevity, as well as specimen age in the novel 'best de-extinction candidate' score (DEXSCO), we identified 556 herbarium specimens belonging to 161 extinct species with available seeds. We expect that this list of de-extinction candidates and the novel approach to rank them will boost research efforts towards the first-ever plant de-extinction.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Andrea Mondoni
- Department of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy
| | - Sandrine Godefroid
- Research Department, Meise Botanic Garden, Meise, Belgium
- Service général de l'Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche scientifique, Fédération Wallonie, Brussels, Belgium
- Laboratory of Plant Ecology and Biogeochemistry, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Charles C Davis
- Department of Organismic Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Giulia Caneva
- Department of Science, University of Roma Tre, Rome, Italy
| | - Matthew A Albrecht
- Center for Conservation and Sustainable Development, Missouri Botanical Garden, St Louis, MO, USA
| | - Karla Alvarado
- Department of Cell Biology, Microbiology and Molecular Biology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA
| | - Roxali Bijmoer
- Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Botany Section, Leiden, the Netherlands
| | | | | | - Elinor Breman
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Wakehurst; Ardingly, Haywards Heath, West Sussex, UK
| | | | - Stephane Buord
- Conservatoire botanique national de Brest, Brest, France
| | | | - Nílber Gonçalves Da Silva
- Departamento de Botânica, Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | | | - Rachael M Davies
- Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Seed and Lab-Based Collections, Sussex, UK
| | - John B Dickie
- Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Seed and Lab-Based Collections, Sussex, UK
| | - Melodina Fabillo
- Queensland Herbarium, Department of Environment and Science, Brisbane Botanic Gardens Mt Coot-tha, Toowong, Queensland, Australia
| | - Andreas Fleischmann
- Botanische Staatssammlung München (SNSB-BSM), and GeoBio-Center LMU, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany
| | - Andrew Franks
- Queensland Herbarium, Department of Environment and Science, Brisbane Botanic Gardens Mt Coot-tha, Toowong, Queensland, Australia
| | - Geoffrey Hall
- Centre sur la biodiversité de l'Université de Montréal (CITES CA-035), Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - Gintaras Kantvilas
- Tasmanian Herbarium, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Sandy Bay, Tasmania, Australia
| | - Cornelia Klak
- Bolus Herbarium, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa
| | - Udayangani Liu
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Wellcome Trust Millennium Building, West Sussex, England, UK
| | | | | | - Ramagwai J Sebola
- South African National Biodiversity Institute, Pretoria, South Africa
- School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand; WITS, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - Ines Schönberger
- Allan Herbarium, Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research, Lincoln, New Zealand
| | - Patrick Sweeney
- Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Hermann Voglmayr
- Department for Botany and Biodiversity Research, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Adam White
- CSIRO Black Mountain Laboratories, Black Mountain, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
| | - Jan J Wieringa
- Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Botany Section, Leiden, the Netherlands
| | - Elke Zippel
- Dahlem Seed Bank, Botanical Garden and Botanic Museum Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Thomas Abeli
- Department of Science, University of Roma Tre, Rome, Italy
- IUCN SSC Conservation Translocation Specialist Group, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
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Fišer Ž, Aronne G, Aavik T, Akin M, Alizoti P, Aravanopoulos F, Bacchetta G, Balant M, Ballian D, Barazani O, Bellia AF, Bernhardt N, Bou Dagher Kharrat M, Bugeja Douglas A, Burkart M, Ćalić D, Carapeto A, Carlsen T, Castro S, Colling G, Cursach J, Cvetanoska S, Cvetkoska C, Ćušterevska R, Daco L, Danova K, Dervishi A, Djukanović G, Dragićević S, Ensslin A, Evju M, Fenu G, Francisco A, Gallego PP, Galloni M, Ganea A, Gemeinholzer B, Glasnović P, Godefroid S, Goul Thomsen M, Halassy M, Helm A, Hyvärinen M, Joshi J, Kazić A, Kiehn M, Klisz M, Kool A, Koprowski M, Kövendi-Jakó A, Kříž K, Kropf M, Kull T, Lanfranco S, Lazarević P, Lazarević M, Lebel Vine M, Liepina L, Loureiro J, Lukminė D, Machon N, Meade C, Metzing D, Milanović Đ, Navarro L, Orlović S, Panis B, Pankova H, Parpan T, Pašek O, Peci D, Petanidou T, Plenk K, Puchałka R, Radosavljević I, Rankou H, Rašomavičius V, Romanciuc G, Ruotsalainen A, Šajna N, Salaj T, Sánchez-Romero C, Sarginci M, Schäfer D, Seberg O, Sharrock S, Šibík J, Šibíková M, Skarpaas O, Stanković Neđić M, Stojnic S, Surina B, Szitár K, Teofilovski A, Thoroddsen R, Tsvetkov I, Uogintas D, Van Meerbeek K, van Rooijen N, Vassiliou L, Verbylaitė R, Vergeer P, Vít P, Walczak M, Widmer A, Wiland-Szymańska J, Zdunić G, Zippel E. ConservePlants: An integrated approach to conservation of threatened plants for the 21st Century. RIO 2021. [DOI: 10.3897/rio.7.e62810] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Even though plants represent an essential part of our lives offering exploitational, supporting and cultural services, we know very little about the biology of the rarest and most threatened plant species, and even less about their conservation status. Rapid changes in the environment and climate, today more pronounced than ever, affect their fitness and distribution causing rapid species declines, sometimes even before they had been discovered. Despite the high goals set by conservationists to protect native plants from further degradation and extinction, the initiatives for the conservation of threatened species in Europe are scattered and have not yielded the desired results. The main aim of this Action is to improve plant conservation in Europe through the establishment of a network of scientists and other stakeholders who deal with different aspects of plant conservation, from plant taxonomy, ecology, conservation genetics, conservation physiology and reproductive biology to protected area's managers, not forgetting social scientists, who are crucial when dealing with the general public.
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