The following is an excerpt.
Conservation workers will this week seek help from an unlikely set of allies. They will ask researchers working on synthetic biology – the science of creating advanced manipulated organisms – to help them save the world’s endangered creatures and habitats.
Threats that conservationists believe could be countered by a new generation of manipulated organisms include the fungus epidemics that are currently devastating frog populations around the world and which are also attacking bat colonies in the United States. In addition, ocean dead zones – where marine life has been killed by algal blooms – could also be tackled by synthetic biology, they believe.
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Read the full article here: Call for DNA biologists to join fight against deadly new threats to wildlife
Further reading:
- Genetically distinct lion population should be conserved, Scientific American.
- De-extinction: Looking past the awe, Genetic Literacy Project.
- Cloning versus habitat protection in wildlife conservation, Spiegel Online.
