The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland’s (RZSS) WildGenes Biobank, based at Edinburgh Zoo, houses thousands of biological samples for the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) community in a purpose-built facility at -80oC storage facility. As EAZA’s UK hub, the RZSS Biobank preserves species biodiversity and is an important resource for conservation research and population management. A key goal of the RZSS Biobank is to increase the number of samples from under-represented taxa. This includes a focus on amphibian samples, which are poorly represented in biobanks compared to mammals and birds. As such, the biobank was delighted to receive their very first caecilian samples recently.
The samples, from the aquatic caecilian (Typhlonectes natans), Gaboon caecilian (Geotrypetes seraphini) and Kaup’s caecilian (Potomotyphlus kaupii) are an exciting addition to the biobank, amongst over 1000 samples added to the biobank last year. Among these were samples from six Critically Endangered amphibian species, including mountain chicken frog, Leptodactylus fallax, and the Lake Oku clawed frog, Xenopus longipes, a species whose conservation has been a priority for RZSS for over a decade. These samples will be preserved at ultra-low temperatures so they are available for research focused on improving conservation outcomes for these threatened amphibian species.
The EAZA biobank network is comprised of four regional hubs, each holding thousands of samples from zoos and aquariums across the continent and beyond. Increasing the number of preserved samples and number of species provides a greater resource to be drawn upon for conservation research and population management. To find out more about EAZA’s biobanking network or to get involved please visit the EAZA biobank website.
The WildGenes biobank also houses samples for the CryoArks initiative, which aims to create the UK’s first comprehensive zoological biobank by bringing together biological samples held in disconnected collections across zoos, museums and universities, to improve visibility and accessibility. The biobank holds samples from wild individuals for CryoArks, including 48 samples from natterjack toads (Epidalea calamita) which are extremely rare in the UK.
To submit samples to the WildGenes biobank please email [email protected].