This article first appeared in Issue 3 of our loose digital magazineCURIOUS .
conservationist based at the UK’sChester Zooannounced earlier this year that they have begun freeze tissue sample of the world ’s rarest animals in an attempt to safeguard them from extermination . Here , Nature ’s SAFE ( one of Europe ’s largest “ living biobanks ” ) was founded by scientists to make a store of cellphone lines that can be land back as sustenance tissue paper . Once back from the “ idle ” , these cadre could be developed and deployed in spawn political program to prove and riposte a deceased animal ’s genetic stuff into a universe .
To find out more about this futurist approach to conservation , IFLScience verbalize toDr Sue WalkerandDr Rhiannon Bolton , cofounders of Nature ’s SAFE , to find out more about how the survive biobank actually cultivate , and what species have been given the unusual deep freeze treatment so far .
The Victoria crowned pigeon is one of several species to have already received the cryoconservation treatment. Image credit: cp2studio / Shutterstock.com
How does Nature ’s SAFE role cryoconservation ?
SW : What we do at Nature ’s SAFE is fundamentally , if an brute passes aside , we can take tissue from their ear which has a large act of fibroblast cells in it . And then , yr or month by and by , we can take them out of the tank and maturate those jail cell lines again . The goal , in possibility , is to one daytime be capable to maturate whichever cell you desire from a cell pipeline include oocytes and spermatozoan … and these could one day be used for artificial insemination . So , all of this is about banking material that might have a use going forward .
What are the main benefit of the cryoconservation plan of attack over existing methodology ?
RB : A lot of biobanks freeze their samples at −20 ° C [ −4 ° F ] and those samples are passing of import for conservation research , genetic analysis , and things like that . But when you freeze a tissue at−20 ° C , the water within the cells burst and it breaks the cell membrane . So , those tissues give-up the ghost .
We habituate a cryoprotectant and store our cells at −196 ° C [ −320 ° F ] . When you dissolve them out , they are still viable , and the DNA is still intact . They ’re essentially alive still . That ’s what enables us to do further affair with the inherited fabric . We can do cell culture or transubstantiate them into induced pluripotent theme cells . That ’s the primal difference , that we ’re a hold up biobank .
Are there any electric cell that ca n’t be stored like this ?
RB : I do n’t consider there are , no , but we do n’t store every cell . We store eggs , ovarian tissue , testicular tissue , and corporeal cells . We mostly get that from a sample of the ear , which contains cartilage and skin and includes fibroblast prison cell that are very gentle to grow . But for different taxa it ’s sometimes advocate to take different sample from the clay to get the beneficial electric cell character for storage . So , for example , for fish they actually recommend gill .
SW : We’re still learning which bits are the good , which sounds harsh , but Nature ’s SAFE is a very scientific discipline - based governance , so we require to make certain we ’re making the right decisions free-base on evidence . So , we ’re very slowly start our enquiry programme up and we ’ve partnered with Professor Suzannah Williams at the University of Oxford . She is help us in term of looking specifically at how to save ovarian tissue and then how good to take that tissue back .
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How do you cope working at temperatures of −196 ° C ?
southwestward : We have to be suit and booted , jade limited protective equipment . Working with limpid nitrogen also present its own risks . you could belittle those with mitt and goggles that would normally come in a research lab . You ’re absolutely safe working with it , you just have to be very careful .
How do you choose species for cryoconservation ?
SW : We do n’t usually take them because we rely material from animal who have passed away naturally , from natural causes . So , we take sample opportunistically , and we will put them into our living biobank . What we ’re then trying to do is kind of give those cellular telephone or that individual and their genetic science life after death , if you like . It gives us an chance to wreak those genetics back into the population .
However , we ’re also starting to do a dead body of work to look at how we could strategically make wildlife samples . This is going to be a PhD that we have come up up very before long , it ’ll be advertised . And it ’s going to look at how we could strategically bank for populations that are most at peril , and how we could get those samples . Because we ca n’t always afford to await for individuals to pass off to get them .
What variety of animal do you have trust currently ?
RB : We’ve got all sorts : African wild dogs , Panthera onca , cheetahs , trebucket . There ’s slew of shuttle including the Victorian crowned pigeon . Then there ’s wad Gallus gallus frogs , which is exceedingly exciting because they ’re terribly endangered .
How might these biobanked samples one twenty-four hour period assist these metal money ?
SW : We’ve actually got two proof of concept as to how this can aid : one is the contraband - footed ferret ; I do n’t know if you ’ve heard ofElizabeth Ann ? Another is thePrzewalski ’s horse . But it ’s exactly the same kind of estimate . It ’s about looking at these at - risk populations and determining how we can patronize them genetically .
What ’s the ultimate goal ?
RB : keep defunctness ! That ’s the whole point . I think we have a duty to do something . We ’ve made quite a boastful mess and we ’re losing the genetic science [ of species ] every sidereal day . If we do n’t do something today , even if the technology is n’t 100 percent there yet , if we do n’t collect the samples and store them in a fashion that means they can be recycle in the future , then they ’re just move . We ’re go to lose so many dissimilar specie otherwise , so that ’s my Leslie Townes Hope . And , have a young home , I want to make certain that there will still be elephant for [ my sons ] .
SW : We’ve beat a farsighted way to go and if we do n’t deposit it now , we ’ve lose hope and we ’ve lost that chance . So , flop now , it ’s about establish our connection and institute in samples . And at the same prison term , in parallel , developing and hone our techniques to bring that tissue back to life .
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