Hyderabad: Storing genetic material for posterity

The only genetic resource bank in the county is cryo-preserving the living cell lines, gametes and embryos of not only endangered species but of every possible animal in India

Hyderabad: Do you know that Hyderabad is home to the modern-day version of Noah’s Ark? Yes, you read it right! In its contemporary avatar, the biblical story of Noah Ark’s is in the form of the country’s first genetic resource bank ‘National Wildlife Genetic Resource Bank’ at Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology‘s (CCMB) Laboratory of Conservation of Endangered Species (LaCONES).

The only genetic resource bank in the county is cryo-preserving the living cell lines, gametes and embryos of not only endangered species but of every possible animal in India. The unique aspect of the laboratory is that CCMB-LaCONES have exclusively developed methods to collect and cryo-preserve semen and oocytes from wildlife and government-run zoological parks.

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The researchers from the CCMB-LaCONES did a lot of groundwork to design and develop such a unique facility, as there are only 20 such laboratories across the world.

To establish the cryo-preservation facility, the CCMBB-LaCONES researchers conducted a major study of the study of Frozen Zoo, at San Diego Zoo in the United States, which is regarded as the largest and most diverse collection with over 10,000 living cell cultures, oocytes, sperm and embryos, including extinct species.

For cryogenic preservation, the researchers at CCMB-LaCONES use liquid Nitrogen that is cooled down to as low as minus 195 degree Celsius. Senior scientists from LaCONES said that the first-of-its-kind facility will not only store the genetic material of animals for posterity but will also act as a ready-reckoner, as a reference material, for future generations.

With the massive development of biotechnology, such a facility will be a godsend for cutting-edge genetic research in the future, they said. To make the preservation laboratory a success, the CCMB LaCONES is collaborating with multiple Indian Zoo facilities so that the genetic resources of the animals can be collected for preservation.