Abstract
Ex situ seed banking was first conceptualized and implemented in the early 20th century to maintain and protect crop lines. Today, ex situ seed banking is important for the preservation of heirloom strains, biodiversity conservation and ecosystem restoration, and diverse research applications. However, these efforts primarily target microalgae and terrestrial plants. Although some collections include macroalgae (i.e., seaweeds), they are relatively few and have yet to be connected via any international, coordinated initiative. In this piece, we provide a brief introduction to macroalgal germplasm banking and its application to conservation, industry, and mariculture. We argue that concerted effort should be made globally in germline preservation of marine algal species via germplasm banking with an overview of the technical advances for feasibility and ensured success.
Highlights
OPEN ACCESSEx situ seed banking is important for the preservation of heirloom strains, biodiversity conservation and ecosystem restoration, and diverse research applications
We provide a brief introduction to macroalgal germplasm banking and its application to conservation, industry, and mariculture
We suggest the following in order to achieve the initiation of such an international cooperative: (1) Legislative/ government officials must support and champion such an initiative at the national level; (2) the cooperative units must agree on at least broad categories, as those suggested previously, of species that should be prioritized worldwide; and (3) the cooperative units must agree to share germplasm collections in order to provide replication and ensure survival of the collections
Summary
Ex situ seed banking is important for the preservation of heirloom strains, biodiversity conservation and ecosystem restoration, and diverse research applications. These efforts primarily target microalgae and terrestrial plants. Some collections include macroalgae (i.e., seaweeds), they are relatively few and have yet to be connected via any international, coordinated initiative In this piece, we provide a brief introduction to macroalgal germplasm banking and its application to conservation, industry, and mariculture. The direst of potential consequences include both localized and complete extinction that in turn results in loss of genetic diversity, ecological function, and services provided by marine photoautotrophs [12,17,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27].
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