Group to examine potential extinction of microbes essential to planetary and human health.
Group to examine potential extinction of microbes essential to planetary and human health.
A newly-formed group of scientists will be fighting for the survival of species — the smallest ones on the planet.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has launched a species survival commission for microbiology and microbes to serve as a global safeguard for microbial biodiversity and to pursue coordinated conservation action. The new Microbial Conservation Specialist Group was formally announced in a new paper published Sept. 12 in Nature Microbiology, marking a first in the history of international conservation and filling a critical gap in microbial conservation.
The new commission, led by microbiologists Jack Gilbert from the University of California San Diego and Raquel Peixoto of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, will look at ecological disruption and the potential extinction of specific strains of microbes, the microscopic organisms such as bacteria, fungi, and viruses that are essential to planetary and human health.
Read More: University of California - San Diego
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