Sequencing work at San Diego’s Frozen Zoo expected to ‘dramatically expand’ science of conservation

For 50 years, scientists at the San Diego Zoo have been collecting and storing cells from rare and endangered species in its Frozen Zoo with an eye to the future.

The future is here. The San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance earlier this month announced it had entered into a partnership with gene-sequencing giant Illumina to use advanced DNA technology to sequence thousands of specimens that have been cryopreserved.

The hope is that generating whole-genome sequencing data from the samples will uncover insights that will help threatened species in the wild and in zoos.

“Sequencing samples represented in the Frozen Zoo is not new — we have been doing this for decades and learning much about the conservation status and evolutionary history of species,” said Megan Owen, vice president of wildlife conservation science with the alliance. “It is the volume of samples that we’ll be able to sequence with Illumina’s support that is truly unique here.”

Owen said partnering with the San Diego-based biotechnology company will help accelerate discoveries that can be made from material in the biobank. Genetic discoveries can help scientists assess the status of inbreeding in a species and identify how its genetic makeup might contribute to diseases or hinder reproduction, she said.

“If we are going to leverage these kinds of materials and these types of analyses to try to halt and reverse declines in wildlife, we really need to pick up the pace and increase t...