ID: 613 / 36

Category: Symposia

Track: Pending

Proposed Symposium Title: PLANT CONSERVATION GENETICS: FROM IN-SITU AND EX-SITU CONSERVATION TO REINTRODUCTIONS AND RESTORATIONS. SESSION 1

Abstract: As we enter the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030) we are seeing conservation genetics being used increasingly to inform conservation and restoration management decisions. Indeed the incorporation of genetic data has proven effective in increasing conservation success, especially for population management. With the accelerated growth of next generation sequencing techniques there are an increasing number of genetic tools available to identify changes in genomic variation and explore adaptation across species. This symposium will provide an up to date perspective on different approaches to plant conservation, highlighting the benefits of using genetic tools to plan and assess conservation actions, as well as pointing out future directions in the field. We are proposing to cover three different but complementary aspects of genetic research important for plant conservation. The first is the study of threatened species in situ, to understand genetic threats to population viability in nature, and identify where increased gene flow and connectivity might be beneficial. Second is the genetic study of ex situ practices that aim to safeguard species germplasm for the future and support further actions in situ. And finally the genetic assessment of reintroductions and restorations, to determine best practices for creating new populations equivalent to historic or remnant populations. In all cases, understanding geographic patterns of genetic diversity, identifying inbred populations, ensuring adequate levels of genetic diversity needed for populations to establish and persist, monitoring unintended selection or the loss of genetic diversity and, with new genomics techniques, identifying fast selective changes and exploring adaptation are all important pieces of information to support conservation practices and management.

Speaker 1: Name: Aline Finger Institutional Affiliation: Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (Scotland) E-mail: AFinger@rbge.org.uk Tentative Talk Title: Combining genetic rescue and conservation translocations

Speaker 2: Name: Carolina Carvalho Institutional Affiliation: Vale Institute of Technology (Brazil) E-mail: carolina.carvalho@ymail.com Tentative Talk Title: Conservation genetics of rare and endemic plants: challenges and advances

Speaker 3: Name: Zoe Diaz-Martin Institutional Affiliation: Chicago Botanic Garden (USA) E-mail: zdiaz-martin@chicagobotanic.org Tentative Talk Title: Moving toward the pedigree management approach used by Zoos for living collections of critically rare plant species

Topics (Up to three): Conservation Biology

Topic 2: Population Genetics

Topic 3: Restoration Ecology

Justification: Conservation genetics is a multi-disciplinary and rapidly evolving field that is receiving more and more attention among plant biologists due to its applications in plant conservation. For this symposium, we selected three early-career women speakers from different regions to include up-to-date and diverse perspectives on the use of genomics in multiple aspects of plant conservation, such as restoration, genetic rescue and ex-situ collections management.