Taiwanese researchers are contributing to a global initiative to identify, document and preserve the world’s species and biodiversity by developing cryobanking, DNA barcoding and online database programs, officials from the Forestry Bureau and the Academia Sinica’s Biodiversity Research Center told a news conference in Taipei on Thursday.
There are nearly 60,000 species in Taiwan, 8,000 of which are endemic, center research fellow Shao Kwang-tsao (邵廣昭) said.
To minimize the negative effects of biodiversity loss, the agencies have launched a liquid nitrogen cryopreservation program for wildlife genetic material, nicknamed the “frozen ark project,” they said.
Photo: Yang Mien-chieh, Taipei Times
Apart from permanently preserving biodiversity, the project could monitor changes in biodiversity and provide applications for the fields of biochemistry and biotechnology, which are expected to become highly competitive, they said.
The project might even be used to bring back extinct species, the agencies added.
The program is sponsored by the bureau and executed by the center, according to the program’s Web site.
Apart from preserving genetic material, researchers are also establishing a DNA barcoding program known as the “Taiwan Barcode of Life” that would make it easier to identify species, they said.
Preserving the genetic material of the nation’s native species is the first step toward contributing to the global DNA barcoding effort, the program’s Web site says.
DNA barcoding could be used when smuggled animal products no longer retain their original appearance, center postdoctoral researcher Huang Shih-pin (黃世彬) said, adding that the animal’s species and subspecies could be determined by “scanning” the DNA barcode.
The bureau and center have already collected 13,063 frozen wildlife specimens across 3,926 species for its cryobanking program and have processed the DNA “barcode” sequences of 3,796 samples across 1,983 species, they said.
They have also stored 1,058 dried fungal specimens across 1,177 fungal species and 1,166 strains of live fungi, and have processed the DNA barcode sequences of 1,687 fungal samples, they added.
The bureau and Academia Sinica in 2011 launched the Taiwan Encyclopedia of Life (TaiEOL) online database, modeled after the international Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) initiative, to document Taiwan’s endemic species.
The TaiEOL in September 2012 signed a memorandum of understanding with the EOL and became an official global partner.
The TaiEOL’s online database includes data on 21,642 species in Taiwan — about a third of the nation’s known species, they said, adding that the database is available for free on the program’s Web site.
The TaiEOL is also expected to launch a mobile app to give the public easier access.
UNDER INVESTIGATION: Huang’s body was found just outside the bathroom and showed no signs of a struggle, and no alcohol or drugs were found Singer and actor Alien Huang (黃鴻升) was found dead at his home in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投) yesterday. He was 36. Huang was also known by the nickname Xiao Gui (“little ghost”). His body was found when his father went to check on him after being unable to reach him by telephone, and called emergency services to the house at 11am, the Taipei City Police Department said. Huang’s body, which was discovered just outside the bathroom, showed no signs of a physical struggle, and he appeared to have been dead for some time, police said, adding that no drugs or alcohol were
CONFIRMED IN PHILIPPINES: The CECC would conduct contact tracing for the migrant workers to determine if they had come into contact with elderly people or children Six Filipinos tested positive for COVID-19 upon returning home from Taiwan, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday as it reported a case of imported COVID-19 infection, bringing the number of confirmed cases in Taiwan to 500. Philippine authorities reported four of the cases through the National IHR Focal Point, while the other two were reported by the company that they had worked for in Taiwan. The six — five women and one man — are aged from their 20s to 40s, and worked as in-home care workers, domestic workers, factory workers and sailors in Taiwan, said Minister of Health and
FEELING MISUNDERSTOOD: Media speculation has fueled confusion about the KMT’s reasons for skipping a Chinese forum and delaying an AIT meeting, party sources said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Sunday said that it is not seeking to improve relations with the US or China at the expense of the other, and that its relations with the countries would be topic-based. The party has faced questions over its foreign policy after it on Monday last week announced its withdrawal from the annual Straits Forum and delayed planned talks with the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). The party has also taken a tough stance on the importation of US meat containing ractopamine, while also lambasting China for increasing its military activity in and around the Taiwan Strait. Following
The COVID-19 pandemic might not have originated from a seafood market in Wuhan, China, National Taiwan University College of Public Health professor Tony Chen (陳秀熙) said yesterday. While many countries are experiencing second waves of COVID-19 infections, many are also lifting lockdowns to revive their economies, allowing travelers to cross national borders, Chen said. Academics have been questioning whether genetic mutations in the novel coronavirus in different countries have made it more infectious, he added. Academics from different backgrounds have conducted phylogenetic analysis of SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences, he said, adding that the studies can help scientists understand how the virus spread among
RSS