ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2021
The crucial role of genome-wide genetic variation in conservation.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 250 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
250 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Spatial Patterns of Intraspecific Genetic Diversity Follow no General Rule Across Climatic and Geographic Gradients.Molecular ecology · 2026Pooled it
- Toward a Global Science of Conservation Genomics: Coldspots in Genomic Resources Highlight a Need for Equitable Collaborations and Capacity Building.Molecular ecology · 2025Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Harnessing macrogenomics to study changing marine ecosystems under global climate change.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2026Review
- A Mid-Atlantic Brook Trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) genome to advance conservation and comparative genomics.G3 (Bethesda, Md.) · 2026Article
- Machine-Learning Models Trained on Genomic Summary Statistics Assess Extinction Risk and Recovery Potential of Bottlenecked Populations.Evolutionary applications · 2026Article
- Genomic erosion in the assessment of species' extinction risk and recovery potential.The Journal of heredity · 2026Article
- De-extinction technology and its application to conservation.The Journal of heredity · 2026Review
- High-Density SNP Genotyping Reveals High Population Connectivity and Limited Spatial Genetic Structure inEcology and evolution · 2026Article
- The utility of herbarium collections for genetic monitoring.Bioscience · 2026Review
- Repeated cases of allopatric divergence and secondary contact in cattail (Typha) speciation.Heredity · 2026Article
- Characterization, evolution, and expression profiling of cotton DUF677 protein family and their potential role in drought and salt stress response.BMC plant biology · 2026Article
- Article
- Putatively Adaptive and Genome-Wide Genetic Variation Often Rank Populations as Similarly Distinctive.Molecular ecology · 2026Article
- Assessing differences among elasmobranch nurseries to aid conservation based on a genomics framework.Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology · 2026Article
- Development and Genetic Monitoring of a Putatively Thiamine Deficiency Complex Tolerant Atlantic Salmon Broodstock.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- A practical framework for identifying genetic subpopulations and ESUs: Insights for IUCN assessments and broader management.Bioscience · 2026Article
- Massive Genetic Diversity Loss Within Asian Elephant Subspecies: New Insights for Determining Conservation Priorities.Genome biology and evolution · 2026Article
- A genetic evaluation of conservation units and four decades of translocation history for Banksia cuneata, an iconic threatened species in a biodiversity hotspot.Annals of botany · 2026Article
- Genomic structural variation rescues a classic biological invader from a population bottleneck.Science advances · 2026Article
190 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The unprecedented rate of extinction calls for efficient use of genetics to help conserve biodiversity. Several recent genomic and simulation-based studies have argued that the field of conservation biology has placed too much focus on conserving genome-wide genetic variation, and that the field should instead focus on managing the subset of functional genetic variation that is thought to affect fitness. Here, we critically evaluate the feasibility and likely benefits of this approach in conservation. We find that population genetics theory and empirical results show that conserving genome-wide genetic variation is generally the best approach to prevent inbreeding depression and loss of adaptive potential from driving populations toward extinction. Focusing conservation efforts on presumably functional genetic variation will only be feasible occasionally, often misleading, and counterproductive when prioritized over genome-wide genetic variation. Given the increasing rate of habitat loss and other environmental changes, failure to recognize the detrimental effects of lost genome-wide genetic variation on long-term population viability will only worsen the biodiversity crisis.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.