The Expectations and Challenges of Wildlife Disease Research in the Era of Genomics: Forecasting with a Horizon Scan-like Exercise
The Expectations and Challenges of Wildlife Disease Research in the Era of Genomics: Forecasting with a Horizon Scan-like Exercise
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DOI：
10.1093/jhered/esz001
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发表时间：
2019-05-01
影响因子：
3.1
通讯作者：
Pecon-Slattery, Jill
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Fitak, Robert R.;Antonides, Jennifer D.;Pecon-Slattery, Jill
致病病原体的爆发和传播导致生物多样性以前所未有的速度下降。基因组学的最新进展已成为监测、检测和重建影响野生动物种群的病原体作用的有力工具。因此，野生动物研究人员处于独特的地位，将生态和进化研究与基因组技术相结合，在疾病研究中利用前所未有的“大数据”工具;然而，许多研究人员缺乏使用这些计算密集型方法所需的培训和专业知识。为了解决这一差距，首届“野生动物疾病基因组学”研讨会聚集了具有跨科学学科专业知识的职业生涯早期到中期的专业人士（例如，基因组学、野生动物生物学、兽医学和保护管理），用于培训基因组工具在野生动物疾病研究中的应用。研讨会参与者进行了一项类似地平线扫描的练习，旨在确定即将到来的趋势和挑战，确定并讨论了被认为是基因组学在野生动物疾病研究中应用最紧迫的5个主题：1）“改善沟通”，2）“方法和分析的进步”，3）“转化为实践”，4）“整合景观生态学和基因组学，5.“新出现的问题。“地平线扫描的广泛解决方案在范围上是国际性的，详细列出了野生动物基因组计划的不足和优势，促进了基因组技术的使用，以联合野生动物和人类疾病研究，并倡导在野生动物疾病项目中最佳使用基因组工具的最佳实践。这些结果让我们得以一窥人类和野生动物疾病研究的潜在革命，这可能是通过地方、区域和全球范围内的多学科合作实现的。
The outbreak and transmission of disease-causing pathogens are contributing to the unprecedented rate of biodiversity decline. Recent advances in genomics have coalesced into powerful tools to monitor, detect, and reconstruct the role of pathogens impacting wildlife populations. Wildlife researchers are thus uniquely positioned to merge ecological and evolutionary studies with genomic technologies to exploit unprecedented "Big Data" tools in disease research; however, many researchers lack the training and expertise required to use these computationally intensive methodologies. To address this disparity, the inaugural "Genomics of Disease in Wildlife" workshop assembled early to mid-career professionals with expertise across scientific disciplines (e.g., genomics, wildlife biology, veterinary sciences, and conservation management) for training in the application of genomic tools to wildlife disease research. A horizon scanning-like exercise, an activity to identify forthcoming trends and challenges, performed by the workshop participants identified and discussed 5 themes considered to be the most pressing to the application of genomics in wildlife disease research: 1) "Improving communication," 2) "Methodological and analytical advancements," 3) "Translation into practice," 4) "Integrating landscape ecology and genomics," and 5) "Emerging new questions." Wide-ranging solutions from the horizon scan were international in scope, itemized both deficiencies and strengths in wildlife genomic initiatives, promoted the use of genomic technologies to unite wildlife and human disease research, and advocated best practices for optimal use of genomic tools in wildlife disease projects. The results offer a glimpse of the potential revolution in human and wildlife disease research possible through multi-disciplinary collaborations at local, regional, and global scales.