Memorandum submitted by the Wellcome Trust
I am writing to you on behalf of the Wellcome
Trust in response to the Science and Technology Select Committee's
call for evidence to their inquiry into systematics and taxonomy.
The Wellcome Trust is the largest charity in
the UK. It funds innovative biomedical research, in the UK and
internationally, spending around £600 million each year to
support the brightest scientists with the best ideas. The Wellcome
Trust supports public debate about biomedical research and its
impact on health and wellbeing.
The Trust feels that systematics and taxonomy
are fundamental to the understanding of biodiversity and the ways
that biodiversity may be changing, particularly in the context
of climate change and global health threats. They are also crucial
to an understanding of basic biology. It is therefore important
that taxonomy and systematics continue to be supported in the
UK research base, given their importance in underpinning research
addressing key global challenges.
Taxonomy is particularly important for the study
of emerging diseases and disease surveillance. Genetic sequencing
of disease organisms and the analysis of their development and
mutation in humans is proving increasingly important. The current
threat of pandemic flu, for example, shows the importance of being
able to identify and track variants of flu in both animals and
humans. It is crucial that taxonomical expertise is maintained
to enable the development of robust, transferable tools for the
identification of emerging diseases.
The Trust notes that there is a current funding
gap for research in the areas of systematics and taxonomy, and
would emphasise the necessity of ensuring sustainable funding
from a diversity of sources.
The Trust would emphasise that it is important
to consider animal, plant and microbial systematics separately,
given the substantial differences in practice for each. However,
although the diverse needs of each field should be recognised,
this should not give rise to disparity between them.
The Trust recognises the enormous potential
of using new sequencing technologies as a powerful tool for genetic
analysis and defining variation between and within species. The
Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute is participating and leading in
international projects using these technologies to understand
and catalogue human variation (the 1000 Genomes project) and the
International Microbiome project to characterise microbial species
present in the human body. The Trust is confident that this and
other research undertaken by the Sanger Institute will form an
important contribution to systematics and taxonomy research.
The Trust recognises that DNA barcoding, for
example through the Barcode of Life initiative, represents important
developments in both systematics and taxonomy. It will be particularly
interesting to see the impact of DNA barcoding on traditional
taxonomy practices, and how newer techniques can be used alongside
more traditional taxonomical tools and practices. It will be important
to continue to monitor developments in this area and in particular,
to ensure that DNA barcoding complements traditional taxonomy
tools to provide accurate classification of species (including
using barcoding alongside more traditional tools).
The Trust is aware of a number of initiatives
in existence around barcoding data collection and sharing, including
the Consortium for the Barcode of Life, the Fish Barcode of Life,
the All Birds Barcoding Initiative and the Polar (Flora and Fauna)
Barcodes of Life. The Trust has also previously supported the
International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature in its development
of Zoobank, a free to access web-based register of all the scientific
names of animals. Whilst such initiatives undoubtedly make a valuable
contribution to the field, it is not always clear what stage they
have reached; what data is collected and how it is managed and
validated; or if and how they interlink. There is an apparent
lack of collaboration between different barcoding initiatives
which makes for significant confusion.
The Trust would emphasise that it is important
that any data collection and data-sharing initiatives should operate
according to shared standards and practices. It will be important
to consider how validation of data could best be achieved. It
would also be helpful to consider how such initiatives might better
join up for the benefit of the taxonomy and systematics community.
Given the current confusion, it would be helpful to review those
current initiatives in order to identify progress to date, likely
future developments, and opportunities for future collaboration
and joint working.
The Trust would suggest that an international
approach is crucial, if the taxonomic community is to achieve
successful data collection and sharing. It is necessary to have
internationally agreed standards and processes on data collection,
classification, validation and sharing to enable high-quality,
accurate data sharing. It will also be necessary to have leadership
at an international level to sustain momentum and ensure that
diverse initiatives are joined up. The Committee may wish to consider
during the course of its inquiry, how work could be taken forward
to develop international standards.
With regard to the skills base for taxonomy,
the Trust would argue that as well as supporting the training
of DNA specialists, it will be important to continue to train
and develop more traditional taxonomists. As noted above, it is
important to maintain taxonomically expertise to support the study
of emerging diseases. Links between wet molecular scientists and
taxonomists should be strongly encouraged to ensure that the full
range of taxonomical skills is maintained, and that the UK has
the skills base to continue to deliver high-quality taxonomy.
The Trust would also highlight the importance of ensuring that
science teachers remain up-to-date with the latest developments
in genetics and knowledge of species, given the importance of
an understanding of biodiversity to science education.
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