title: Is It Time for Synthetic Biodiversity Conservation?
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.
authors.affiliation: US Department of Agriculture, National Wildlife Research Center, 4101 LaPorte Avenue, Fort Collins, CO 80521, USA. Electronic address: toni.j.piaggio@aphis.usda.gov.
authors.forename: Antoinette J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Piaggio
authors.affiliation: Wildlife Ecology and Management, University of Freiburg, 79106 Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Gernot
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Segelbacher
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin 9016, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Philip J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Seddon
authors.affiliation: Arthropod Genetics Group, The Pirbright Institute, Ash Road, Woking, GU24 0NF, UK; Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.
authors.forename: Luke
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Alphey
authors.affiliation: Wildlife Conservation Society, 2300 Southern Boulevard, Bronx, NY 10460, USA.
authors.forename: Elizabeth L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Bennett
authors.affiliation: Biodesic, Seattle, WA 98103, USA.
authors.forename: Robert H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Carlson
authors.affiliation: J. Craig Venter Institute, 4120 Capricorn Lane, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
authors.forename: Robert M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Friedman
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Cellular Medicine, Texas A&M University, 440 Reynolds Medical Building, College Station, TX 77843, USA.
authors.forename: Dona
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kanavy
authors.affiliation: Revive and Restore, 2 Marina Boulevard Building A, San Francisco, CA 94123, USA.
authors.forename: Ryan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Phelan
authors.affiliation: Archipelago Consulting, Box 4750, Portland, ME, USA; Department of Environmental Studies, University of New England, Biddeford, ME, 04112, USA.
authors.forename: Kent H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Redford
authors.affiliation: Federico Villarreal National University, Avenida Oscar R. Benavides 450, Lima, Perú.
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rosales
authors.affiliation: Environmental Law Centre, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Godesberger Allee 108-112, 53175 Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: Lydia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Slobodian
authors.affiliation: ZedX Inc., Bellefonte, PA 16823, USA; IUCN, Rue Mauverney 28, 1196 Gland, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Keith
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wheeler
mesh_terms: D044822:Biodiversity; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D004463:Ecology; D058865:Introduced Species; D058615:Synthetic Biology
keywords: biodiversity; conservation; synthetic biology