Aquaculture America 2024

February 18 - 21, 2024

San Antonio, Texas

AN ARCHIPELAGO, NOT JUST ISLANDS: DEVELOPING REPOSITORY SYSTEMS FOR SAFEGUARDING THE GENETIC RESOURCES OF AQUATIC INVERTEBRATES

Jack C. Koch* and Terrence R. Tiersch

 

Aquatic Germplasm and Genetic Resources Center (AGGRC)

Louisiana State University Agricultural Center

Baton Rouge, LA 70820

Jkoch@agcenter.lsu.edu

 



Safeguarding of the genetic resources of e conomically important agricultural species  has developed into multi-billion-dollar global industries  driven by collecting , evaluating,  storing, and distributing cryopreserved germplasm maintained in repositories. These efforts  have combined public research innovation with commercial development and provide a wide variety of  approaches, platforms, and technologies  from which to build new global genetic resource industries. Overall, the value  of germplasm repositories  and  the  urgent need  to develop them  is being realized by the broader scientific community, especiall y  for  established,  minor, and emerging invertebrate biomedical models. Beyond the actions of individual entities, development of repository syste ms  for protection of resources  would be most productive at the levels of communities and community networks to facilitate  the translation  from  research  to applicatio n,  enabling efficient use of material, and  to improve generalizability. Germplasm repository systems that are generalizable  across  a variety of organisms  would  support development of  new repositories and provide a way to address multi -taxa challenges. An islands-to- archipelago  model could be useful for building repository system s  to protect the genetic resources of aquatic invertebrates. In this, parallel and cross-cutting efforts would occur simultaneously for multiple organisms. Thus,  instead of developing a new “island language” for each organism, communities would  work together to create languages compatible with others  on neighboring islands to  form an “archipelago” (Figure 1). Th is would  include  development of communities , technologies , and  community-level cryopreservation pathways. Model organism communities face similar problems in protecting genetic resources – rapid expansion of genetic lines followed by deep regret for the lack of maintenance and protection pathways. By recognizing an archipelago rather than separate islands, invertebrate  research  communities can address problems before they occur. Furthermore, by including established  repository concepts  in development of new pathways,  we can leverage existing resources and information to bring  much-needed generalization , scalability, and  application to minor and emerging model organism communities.