Cryopreservation to Secure Coral Reef Biodiversity (E-Aquarium Conference 2021)
Conservation
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30m
Dr. Jon Daly's (Taronga Conservation Society Australia) presentation at the E-Aquarium Conference 2021. With coral reefs likely to face a significant loss of species and genetic diversity in the coming decades, the need for innovative restoration tools to conserve and secure existing coral biodiversity is urgent. One of the most effective methods to secure biodiversity is the storage of cryopreserved genetic material at ultra-low temperatures in biorepositories, which can maintain living cells, tissues, and germplasm in a frozen state indefinitely. Cryopreservation of living coral samples from healthy reefs can help to mitigate the loss of diversity and can provide support for a range of reef restoration initiatives, for example by storing reproductive material for breeding facilities, securing the genetics of valuable research strains, and providing material for restoration programs. Cryopreservation efforts have so far focussed on coral sperm, and thousands of samples from coral species representing Caribbean, Hawaiian, French Polynesian, and Great Barrier Reef populations are currently held in biorepositories in the US and Australia. The recent development of innovative cryopreservation and warming technologies to recover large and complex coral tissues has enabled the cryopreservation of coral larvae and symbionts and may soon permit the freezing and recovery of adult coral tissues, which would greatly expand the range of species that could be secured and permit biobanking activities to occur year-round. The continued development and transfer of these technologies to Australia to support the Great Barrier Reef has begun as part of the RRAP Cryopreservation Sub-program, which aims to embed cryopreservation as a tool for genetic management in reef restoration programs. These technologies will be essential to securing coral reef biodiversity and maximizing the genetic diversity that is available to reef restoration efforts now and in the future.
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