Genomic diversity of rat root (Acorus calamus) - Part 2

土著关于植物多样性的知识是基于几代人积累的经验，在某些情况下，土著人民认识到某些植物群体的变异程度比科学发现的要大。然而，在管理和保护生物多样性时，很少考虑本土植物知识。在加拿大，正在接受联邦审查的开发项目需要考虑传统知识，但关于如何这样做的规定过于宽泛，对于如何在填海规划中考虑传统知识几乎没有规定。因此，原住民和梅蒂斯人努力让他们的知识在土地利用规划中得到体现。整体生态集团(IEG)是一家咨询公司，与艾伯塔省北部的第一民族和梅蒂斯社区合作，研究开发对其传统领地的影响。这项研究的目的是与IEG合作，在传统和科学知识的背景下探索老鼠根(Acorus Calamus)的变异。鼠根是加拿大许多原住民和梅蒂斯社区的传统药物和核心物种，被科学界公认为单一物种。然而，许多First Nation和Métis成员识别出两种类型的鼠根，这表明该物种内可能存在科学没有捕捉到的变异。这项研究正在使用DNA条形码来确定老鼠根是否包括两个不同的物种。目前，需要进一步的研究来采样和分析更多的种群，以增加我们的统计信心，以更好地了解种内变异。我们还希望扩大基因组研究，包括对所有收集的样本进行基因组扫描和核磁共振(核磁共振)。这将使我们能够将基因组学与新陈代谢学联系起来。这项研究可能导致确定一种新物种，这将有助于专家小组和第一民族和梅蒂斯人社区的努力，证明有必要将传统知识纳入内陆用途和填海规划。此外，这项研究具有全球相关性，因为它代表了一种连接传统知识和科学知识的新方法，以扩大我们对生物多样性的理解。

Indigenous knowledge of plant diversity is based on generations of accumulated experience, and in some cases,indigenous people recognize a greater level of variation within certain plant groups than is discerned byscience. However, indigenous plant knowledge is rarely considered when managing and conservingbiodiversity. In Canada, development projects undergoing federal review are required to consider traditionalknowledge, but the regulations on how to do so are overly broad, and there are few stipulations on how toconsider traditional knowledge in reclamation planning. As a result, First Nations and Métis people struggle tohave their knowledge represented in land use planning. Integral Ecology Group (IEG) is a consulting companythat works with First Nation and Métis communities in northern Alberta to examine impacts of development intheir traditional territories. The aim of this research is to partner with IEG to explore variation of rat root(Acorus calamus) in the context of traditional and scientific knowledge. Rat root is a traditional medicine andkeystone species of many First Nations and Métis communities in Canada, and it is recognized by the scientificcommunity as a single species. However, there are many First Nation and Métis members who recognize twotypes of rat root, suggesting that there may be variation within the species that is not captured by science. Thisstudy is using DNA barcoding to determine if rat root comprises two distinct species. Currently, furtherresearch is required to sample and analyze additional populations to increase our statistical confidence to betterunderstand intraspecific variation. We also want to expand the genomic research to include Genome Scans andNuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) for all the samples collected. This will allow us to bridge genomics withmetabolomics. The research could lead to the identification of a new species, which would assist the efforts ofIEG and First Nation and Métis communities in demonstrating the need to include traditional knowledge inland use and reclamation planning. Furthermore, the study is globally relevant in that it represents a novelapproach at bridging traditional and scientific knowledge to expand our understanding of biodiversity.