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Soil as a transdisciplinary research catalyst: from bioprospecting to biorespecting
Royal Society Open Science, Volume: 10, Issue: 11
Swansea University Author: Matthew Tarnowski
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© 2023 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.
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DOI (Published version): 10.1098/rsos.230963
Abstract
The vast microbial biodiversity of soils is beginning to be observed and understood by applying modern DNA sequencing techniques. However, ensuring this potentially valuable information is used in a fair and equitable way remains a challenge. Here, we present a public engagement project that explore...
| Published in: | Royal Society Open Science |
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| ISSN: | 2054-5703 |
| Published: |
The Royal Society
2023
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| Online Access: |
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| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa67007 |
| Abstract: |
The vast microbial biodiversity of soils is beginning to be observed and understood by applying modern DNA sequencing techniques. However, ensuring this potentially valuable information is used in a fair and equitable way remains a challenge. Here, we present a public engagement project that explores this topic through collaborative research of soil microbiomes at six urban locations using nanopore-based DNA sequencing. The project brought together researchers from the disciplines of synthetic biology, environmental humanities and microbial ecology, as well as school students aged 14–16 years old, to gain a broader understanding of views on the use of data from the environment. Discussions led to the transformation of ‘bioprospecting’, a metaphor with extractive connotations which is often used to frame environmental DNA sequencing studies, towards a more collaborative approach—‘biorespecting’. This shift in terminology acknowledges that genetic information contained in soil arises as a result of entire ecosystems, including the people involved in its creation. Therefore, any use of sequence information should be accountable to the ecosystems from which it arose. As knowledge can arise from ecosystems and communities, science and technology should acknowledge this link and reciprocate with care and benefit-sharing to help improve the wellbeing of future generations. |
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| College: |
Faculty of Science and Engineering |
| Funders: |
This project was made possible by a Public Engagement Award from the Royal Society (PEF2\180019) to T.E.G. and M.J.T.
In addition, M.J.T. was supported by the EPSRC/BBSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Synthetic Biology grant EP/L016494/1, and T.E.G. was supported by a Royal Society University Research Fellowship grant UF160357 and BrisEngBio, a UKRI-funded Engineering Biology Research Centre grant BB/W013959/1. |
| Issue: |
11 |