The Evolution of Conservation Biobanking: A Literature Review and Analysis of Terminology, Taxa, Location, and Strategy of Wildlife Biobanks Over Time.

Abstract

Nearly one-third of flora, fauna, and funga species on Earth are threatened with extinction. In response, the prevalence of repositories-often called "biobanks" or "genome resource banks"-for storing biological materials from threatened species has become more widespread. This research examined trends for the (1) terminology, (2) taxa representation, (3) global distribution, and (4) operational approach of biobanks versus genome resource banks relating to zoos and wildlife. Our literature search results indicate that although genome resource banking literature began earlier in the 1990s, biobanking has seen a surge in publications with over 3.5× more literature for biobanking since 2020. Genome resource bank articles were highly focused on mammals (68%), while biobanking literature focused more on multi-taxonomic overviews and less-studied taxa. Our search parameters found the largest number of wildlife biobanks in Europe (18) and the lowest number in South America (2), though results are likely impacted by the search being completed in English. Additionally, only 28% (7/25) of global biodiversity hotspots contain a wildlife biobank based on our methodology. While not all wildlife biobanking efforts are published or reported, these findings suggest that (1) "biobank" will likely be the more widely used term in the future, (2) more biobanking research is needed for non-mammalian taxa, (3) there are geographical gaps in wildlife biobanks, and (4) conservation biobanking programs should focus on storing biospecimens from a wide set of individuals and develop assisted reproductive technologies concomitantly with the goal of maintaining healthy, sustainable populations in the long term.