In March 2024, a team of researchers from various European institutions launched a collaborative project under the BGE-ERGA umbrella. This project, based at the University of Copenhagen and spanning multiple countries, involves a team of experts led by Assoc. Prof. Hernán E. Morales. The primary goal is to use advanced genomic tools to enhance the long-term viability and reduce the extinction risk of the little owl (Athene noctua) in Europe. They aim to integrate comprehensive genomic and demographic data to inform effective conservation policies and strategies.
Photo by Martha de Jong-Lantink - Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Research activities involve a large temporal dataset of samples spanning the last 100 years. This dataset is used to generate genomic sequences from modern (last 10 years), recent (1970s-1980s), and historical (over 100 years old) samples of little owls across Europe. This project will raise significant interest within the scientific community due to its potential to provide insights into the little owl's genomic erosion and adaptive potential.
The team is focusing on valuable sample archives curated by several researchers across Europe: Dr. Irene Pellegrino from the University of Piemonte Orientale, Prof. Cino Pertoldi and Prof. Torsten Nygård Kristensen from Aalborg University, and Dr. Peter Hosner from the National Natural History Museum of Denmark. Archived samples are mostly found in the form of feathers and small pieces of museum-preserved toe-pads. These materials contain minimal amounts of degraded DNA. Cutting-edge paleogenomics methods to extract whole genomes from these challenging samples are being used at the Globe Institute at the University of Copenhagen, a world-leading institution in ancient DNA research.
Insights from this project will be crucial for understanding population decline's impacts and developing targeted conservation strategies. In addition to advancing our scientific understanding, this project illustrates the importance of genomics in the conservation of biodiversity. This project receives funding from the European Union under the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme, co-funded by the Swiss Government and the British government, with additional support from the Danish foundation 15 Juni Fonden and collaborating institutions. We also thank the European Reference Genome Atlas (ERGA) for providing a collaborative platform that made this
Photo 2 by Caroline Legg - Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0
About the Author
Hernán E. Morales is a council member of ERGA. He leads the Evolutionary and Conservation Genomics group at the Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen, focusing on the genomic consequences of population decline and the development of conservation strategies. You can learn more about his work and the team’s research at the University of Copenhagen's Evolutionary Genomics.
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