{Feature has been uploaded by CSIR (Unit for Science Dissemination), Ministry of Science & Technology, New Delhi}
What happens when our precious
possessions are lost? Invariably, loss of wealth or something dear makes most
of us quite upset that triggers us to take measures for protecting our belongings.
Well, Nature too belongs to all of us. The bountiful Nature is replete with
priceless possessions in the form of myriad varieties of life forms, each one
of them being a masterpiece in itself. But alas, some of them like the Caspian
tiger, Sea cow, Dodo, Quagga and many more are gone forever and we shall never
see them again. With their extinction, the millions of years that these species
took to evolve are also lost. Surely, loss of this natural wealth reflected by extinction of
several plant and animal species from the face of the Earth is not only very
disturbing but also is a fair reason for gearing up our action to conserve the
endangered life forms that are on the verge of extinction.
Needless to say,
conservation of the existing biodiversity is the need of the hour. Several
factors like destruction of forests and indiscriminate killing of animals as a
sport and for trade has been the major cause for pushing animals to
extinction. It is a matter of pride that
CSIR has taken a lead in conservation of wildlife as the Centre for Cellular
and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad, initiated in 1998 the setting up of
the laboratory for Conservation of Endangered Species (LaCONES)
with help of the Department of Biotechnology
(DBT), Government of India, New Delhi and the Central Zoo Authority (CZA), New
Delhi. The Department of Forestry, Government of Andhra
Pradesh and the Nehru
Zoological Park at Hyderabad, are also major partners in this joint venture.
Piloted by Dr. Lalji Singh, former Director,
CCMB and Dr. S. Shivaji, Director-grade scientist,
CCMB, LaCONES is a unique laboratory set up at Attapur near Nehru Zoological
park, Hyderabad, on land allotted by the Government of Andhra Pradesh. This novel
scientific endeavour is a part of a national programme to tackle the challenge
of wildlife extinction by employing novel methods of biotechnology and assisted
reproductive technologies. The idea is to conserve and prevent the extinction
of endangered wildlife by focusing on both conservation as well as propagation
of such species by several innovative techniques. It was on February 1, 2007
that the then President of India, Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam dedicated the LaCONES
to the Nation for the cause of conservation of wildlife (CSIR News, Vol. 57,
No. 4, 28 February 2007)
The wide range of research activities at the
LaCONES includes the resurrection of extinct and endangered species by cloning
the frozen genetic material and using oocytes of a closely related species as
surrogate mother, monitoring of genetic variations and establishing of gene and
cell banks for such species. A major focus is on the development of assisted
reproduction technologies such as intrauterine insemination, in vitro fertilization,
intra-cytoplasm sperm injection, embryo transfer, etc., for conservation of
rare species.
The state-of-the-art LaCONES has facilities
for cryo-preservation of semen, eggs and embryos of endangered species. Semen
analysis is done to study the semen quality for selecting animals for breeding.
Besides, standardization of artificial insemination for wild animals is another
major activity at LaCONES. Planned in-house breeding strategies or captive
breeding of animals that cannot be saved in the wild are developed. The outcome
of such efforts has greatly helped in preventing extinction of wild animals
like cheetah, non-human primates, and several birds among other rare species.
Protocols have been established for anaesthetizing
and electro-ejaculating a wide range of animals such as lions, tigers,
leopards, hyenas, jackals, bears, deers and monkeys. A mobile van equipped with
facilities like cryopreservation, sonography, computerized sperm motility
analyzer. etc., enables the scientists to reach different habitats for collecting samples.
As DNA is
the blueprint of life of all organisms, its long-term preservation is a crucial
step in storing all information about various specifications of that life form. This has a
futuristic possibility of reconstructing an extinct species, while providing a
renewable resource for genetic variation in endangered species through captive
breeding when loss of variation through inbreeding seriously threatens their
survival. On the contrary, if the DNA and cells of endangered species were not
stored, the vital information linked to these life forms would be lost forever.
It is a heartening fact that the LaCONES has been honoured as a
Member of the International Consortium of the Frozen Ark – an international
depository of DNA representing the Indian subcontinent.
The Frozen Ark Consortium is a worldwide group of
institutions, with its coordinating office located at the School of Biology,
University of Nottingham, U.K. In the Frozen Ark freezers, the DNA and the
viable cells of endangered species are stored in liquid nitrogen at -196oC. The CCMB scientists have developed primers to decode the
molecular signatures of endangered species from their tissue samples by the
technique of DNA fingerprinting. A database of molecular signatures of over
2000 animal species has been created.
Scientists at
LaCONES have successfully employed the assisted reproductive technologies to
propagate wildlife species such as black buck, chital and blue rock pigeon. The
birth of ‘Spotty’, a baby spotted deer/cheetal, using artificial
insemination in March 2006 was indeed breathtaking. Such a success story was
repeated in August 2007 when ‘Blacky’, a black
buck, was born to one of the three inseminated bucks. The same techniques are
being employed on other rare species such as vultures, Nicobar pigeons and the
big cats for increasing their dwindling numbers. The LaCONES is indeed a classic example of
application of science & technology in protecting thousands of marvelous
creations of Nature.
No comments:
Post a Comment