Biodiversity biobanks: a landscape analysis

Abstract

Biobanks are curated collections of biological samples that are preserved at the molecular level, usually frozen, along with associated data, and managed to high scientific standards. We conducted a 'landscape analysis'—based both on a community survey and a literature review—to determine commonalities, information gaps, and challenges in the various workflows of biodiversity and environmental biobanks. The survey was completed by 55 institutions from more than 20 countries. Its results were compared to other collection-based surveys and complemented by literature research in the areas of general biobank management, staffing, sample handling, storage, (cryo-/)preservation, policies, databases, and networking. We illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of biodiversity and environmental biobanks and provide some basic recommendations for improving biobank procedures. In general, we found that increased efforts are needed to standardise biobank workflows or individual workflow components. While general, organism-independent biobanking guidelines already exist, more detailed guidance documents to date mostly address only human biobanking, or a narrow range of biodiversity. We hope to start closing that gap by providing an overview of current protocols and practices in biodiversity and environmental biobanking in form of a handbook, to which the present work is directly related. The handbook is available open-access under https://doi.org/10.3897/ab.e101876.

Novel database reveals growing prominence of deep-sea life for marine bioprospecting

“…With the successful conclusion of the High Seas Treaty and the recognition of DSI in the legally-binding BBNJ agreement, MGR used for bioprospecting and product discovery opens a new opportunity to protect biodiversity in deep-sea habitats. However, the INSDC database, the largest data repository of DSI up to date, is currently missing from the biodiversity informatics landscape (Bingham et al 2017;Corrales et al 2023), therefore genetic diversity and the information on the spatial origin of genetic information is not available on a global level. Adoption of the principles of Open and Responsible Data Governance and the development of MGR data repositories (Oldham, Chiarolla, and Thambisetty 2023) will be a necessary step to overcome the lack of information on MGR in ABNJ.…”

A Standardized Nomenclature Design for Systematic Referencing and Identification of Animal Cellular Material

“…Besides nature conservation efforts, the collection and active preservation of living biological samples usable for research (e.g., for the generation of germ cells) also plays an increasingly crucial role in species conservation [ 1 ]. The global exchange of such rare and valuable biosamples for research and species conservation requires traceability [ 2 ]. Standardized naming tools for generating unique identifiers (UIs) support such mandatory tracing, enable clear referencing and have been broadly discussed for human cells [ 3 , 4 ], human genomic data [ 5 ] and human gene products [ 6 , 7 ].…”

“…In contrast, living cellular biosamples of wildlife, i.e., non-domesticated species [ 44 ], have been less strongly researched yet are steadily growing in number. As a result, animal biosamples are increasingly exchanged and processed by different research institutions worldwide [ 2 ]. This demands unambiguous identification to assure access to and the traceability and easy authentication of samples and cells.…”

“…They further target promoting its broad application in different research fields and conservation efforts [ 65 ], comparative cell and development biology research [ 66 ], (advanced) assisted reproduction technologies ((a)ART) and stem-cell-associated techniques (SCAT) [ 1 , 24 , 67 , 68 , 69 ]. These biorepositories are in need of joint data and process standardization [ 2 , 19 ]. Informative unique identifiers will ease compliance tracing within the relevant legal frameworks of animal biosamples stored in cryobanks and exchanged internationally.…”