The Sanger Centre’s landmark genetic sequencing of 25 species raises hopes not just for the conservation of Britain’s wildlife but for humans too
The Guardian | Sep 23, 2018 | Robin McKie
Carrington’s featherwort is an unusual plant by any standards. Tiny, between 2cm and 5cm in height, it clusters on high ground in north-west Scotland. Crucially, every single plant found in this secluded Caledonian enclave is male. By contrast, the only other substantial colonies known to botanists are located in the Himalayas – and are made up of females.
Carrington’s featherwort would now be extinct were it not for the fact that the species can also propagate nonsexually. New plants form out of fragments of existing featherworts, producing colonies of clones.
“The trouble is that populations created this way may well lack genetic variation, leaving them vulnerable to infestations or ecological damage,” says Dan Mead, a geneticist at the Sanger Institute near Cambridge. “It is a worry.”
But hope is at hand for Scotland’s lonely gentlemen featherworts. Next week, the centre’s scientists will announce that they have sequenced the plant’s entire genome, allowing them to assess the genetic health of its colonies and even consider cross-breeding programmes to reinvigorate them.
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