The genetic material of some rare plants and wildlife in the US may soon be stored for future recovery work. Department of the Interior announced On June 25, the US Fish and Wildlife Service signed a memorandum of understanding Colossal BiosciencesA Texas-based biotechnology company known for its work on extinction. The agreement focuses on biobanking, genomic science and conservation of genetic diversity of species protected under the Endangered Species Act.
Colossal is no stranger to fascinating conservation science. The company made headlines after announcing it had created genetically edited gray wolves with the traits of dire wolves, a project it has billed as the first successful extinction event.
Colossal is calling this project BioVault. The company says the effort will collect and preserve living cells, reproductive tissues and genomic material from approximately 2,300 endangered and threatened plants and wildlife.
The goal now is to save the genetic material before some species lose more diversity or disappear from the landscape altogether.
What is BioVault?
biobanking The process of collecting and preserving biological material for future research or conservation work. In this case, this may include tissue samples, living cells, reproductive material, and DNA.
The material will be cryogenically stored in liquid nitrogen at -321 degrees Fahrenheit at Colossal’s Dallas headquarters and other locations. Colossal said it would spend millions of dollars to build and operate the project.
FWS said the agreement does not commit federal funding. Any future projects involving federal funds, services or property transfers will require separate agreements.
Specimens may ultimately help support breeding, genetic management, and recovery work for species with small or declining populations. This does not mean that everything going into the vault is going for cloning. This means researchers may have more options if a species loses a lot of genetic diversity in the wild.
ferret
Biobanking already has a real-world example in black-footed ferret recovery. In 2020, scientists created the first cloned native endangered species in North America. She was cloned from preserved cells taken from Willa, a black-footed ferret who lived in the 1980s and had no living descendants.
That work gave researchers access to genetics that had been missing from the current recovery population for decades.
What a freezer can’t fix
BioVault can help biologists preserve rare genetic material before it is lost. It could also give future recovery teams more options when small populations struggle with genetic bottlenecks.
It won’t solve the problems that put most species at risk in the first place.
Frozen cells do not protect migration corridors. They do not restore wetlands. They do not keep sagebrush intact, stop invasive species, slow disease, or prevent habitat from developing.
For genetic rescue work to be important, species still need places to live.
ESA background
The announcement comes as the Trump administration is making changes to Endangered Species Act rules.
In November, FWS proposed eliminating the blanket rule option for threatened species in the future. That rule allowed the agency to automatically extend many endangered-species protections to threatened species unless the FWS created a species-specific rule.
The proposed change would instead require species-specific 4(d) rules for threatened species. Federal officials say this will ensure protection for each species and reduce unnecessary restrictions. Conservation groups argue that this could slow down protection and leave threatened species with less automatic coverage.
FWS has also proposed how economic, national security, and other impacts are considered when considering excluding areas from critical habitat.
This puts BioVault in an interesting position. The federal government is supporting a high-tech effort to preserve genetic material from endangered species, while also reshaping the rules that shape the way those species and their habitats are now protected.
Preserved genetic material can become a useful recovery tool. But DNA is only a small piece of what keeps a species on the landscape.
