Establishing museomics as a tool to inform the conservation of endangered species

Global biodiversity is being decimated by human activities, including agriculture, deforestation and land use change. This is causing unprecedented population declines and pushing species to extinction, especially in tropical ecosystems. Genetic health is an important measure of population viability, and to help identify populations at risk, this is now being included in conservation programs however, incorporating this level of information on genetic diversity can be challenging. Additionally, because standing levels of variation differ between species this makes assessing whether a population has low or high genetic diversity can be very difficult. In response, MUSEOMIC, will harness new ancient genetic and museomics techniques (sequencing of museum specimens), to measure changes in genetic diversity in three extremely vulnerable mammals (anoa, babirusa and Sulawesi warty pig) in the biodiversity hotspot of Wallacea. As an isolated tropical archipelago in Indonesia, Wallacea is the perfect natural laboratory for understanding how ancient and anthropogenic disturbances have impacted the genetic erosion of the three flagship mammals and is contributing to their decline. By tracking changes in genetic health through time and space, MUSEOMIC will gain insights into the extinction risk these unique taxa face and will directly benefit population management and long-term survival by identifying unique genetic diversity, designating conservation units, and making captive breeding recommendations. Hosted by Prof. L. Frantz at Ludwig Maximilian University Munich (LMU), through MUSEOMIC, Dr Rosie Drinkwater will gain new skills in bioinformatics and population genetics, grow her research network, and succeed as a future leader in conservation biology.