Whole genome resequencing approach for conservation biology of endangered plants

Abstract

Background and Aims: Increasing attention is focused on global change and loss of biodiversity. Genetics is an important tool in the conservation of threatened species, which have greatly promoted our understanding of diverse areas in conservation biology. However, some key scientific issues in conservation biology, including evolutionary history, endangered mechanism, genetic basis of adaptive evolution and inbreeding depression, are remain to be understood. Spurred by technological advances in high-throughput sequencing, conservation genomics are developed by using of new genomic techniques to solve problems in conservation biology, providing new approaches to deep understanding of the key issues in conservation biology. This paper briefly summarizes the impoilant research progress in the conservation genomics based on whole genome resequencing, aiming to promote the conservation biology of threatened plant in China. Progresses: Whole genome resequencing, being the highest genomic resolution among current methods in conservation genomics, has made many significant advancements, including classification of phylogenetic relationships between unresolved taxa, the reconstruction of population structure, genomic diversity, demographic history, adaptive evolution and inbreeding depression. Based on these advancements, conservation taxa and conservation units are identified, the evolutionary history and endangered causes of species are revealed and the genetic basis of adaptive evolution and inbreeding depression are partly revealed. Prospect: As whole-genome resequencing provides deep insights into the key issues in conservation biology, with the improvements of even higher throughput and lower cost, whole-genome resequencing will be a routine task in conservation biology studies.