Biobanking biodiversity: recent strategies, challenges, and opportunities

Abstract

Earth is undergoing accelerated loss of biodiversity. As wild animal populations decline, the resulting erosion of genetic diversity threatens species’ adaptive potential and long-term survival. Wildlife biobanking, defined as the systematic collection, preservation, and use of biological materials and their associated metadata, has emerged as a critical conservation strategy. Importantly, building on decades of progress in cryobiology and reproductive biotechnologies, gonadal and somatic tissues and cells from thousands of wild species have been preserved worldwide. These biobanks serve as genetic insurance policies, supporting animal care and management, research, assisted reproduction, and eventual population recovery. This review discusses current strategies, challenges, and future opportunities in wildlife biobanking. Cryopreservation approaches for different sample types and taxa also are reviewed, emphasizing the challenges of sample availability and species-specific cryotolerance. The objective is also to integrate increasingly large amount of data associated with biological samples (digital biobanking) into conservation efforts. New frontiers in biobanking include innovative ambient-temperature preservation, precision biobanking informed by omics technologies, data interpretation using artificial intelligence, and establishment of global networks. These promising developments provide more opportunities to enhance and expand wildlife biobanking more quickly and broadly.