WASHINGTON, DC.- The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History announced that scientists with the museum’s Global Genome Initiative—a component of the Smithsonian Institute for Biodiversity Genomics—will capture the genomic diversity of half the world’s living plant genera in less than two years. The Smithsonian aims to preserve plant genome diversity at time when scientists have recently estimated that the rate of species extinction for all life may be up to 100 times higher than normal. The effort will catapult the Global Genome Initiative closer to achieving its goal of preserving half of the genomic diversity of life on Earth in networked biorepositories, worldwide. To accelerate the rate of collecting and concentrate the diversity of plants to be sampled, Smithsonian scientists and their partners will gather initial samples from gardens within the Washington, D.C., area.

Scientists and field teams from the Museum of Natural History’s Department of Botany have begun sampling plants from half of the world’s living plant genera within the holdings of the U.S. Botanic Garden, the Smithsonian Gardens and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s U.S. National Arboretum.

“Now more than ever, the Smithsonian is dedicated to increasing our knowledge about life on Earth through emerging genomic technologies and capabilities,” said John Kress, the Smithsonian’s interim Under Secretary for Science. “Partnering with botanical gardens around the world is an essential step in opening new doors to the hidden benefits that can emerge from the world’s plant genomes.”

Field teams will collect a diversity of plant samples in partner gardens’ holdings in and around the nation’s capital that originate from across the world, ranging from plants known to live in the rainforests of Hawaii to those in the deserts of Madagascar. The scientists will preserve the plant tissues in cryogenic vials and store them in liquid nitrogen, depositing them in the Smithsonian’s biorepository for indefinite storage. The U.S. National Herbarium at the National Museum of Natural History will house a pressed specimen of each plant.

“This pilot collaborative effort between the Smithsonian, U.S. National Arboretum and the U.S. Botanic Garden comes at an urgent time when the scientific community’s access to the world’s plant genomes—the blueprint of life—is limited due to biodiversity loss and lackluster genomic-research infrastructure,” said Jonathan Coddington, director of the National Museum of Natural History’s Global Genome Initiative. “We are now focused on continuing to strategically grow new collaborations with botanic gardens worldwide that share our mission to preserve and unlock the genomic mysteries of plants.”

“We are excited to participate in the Global Genome Initiative and help preserve the vast genetic diversity of our Earth’s plants,” said Ari Novy, executive director of the U.S. Botanic Garden. “Plants provide so much of what we need to survive and thrive, from the food we eat and the clothing we wear to the beautiful flowers and trees that adorn our landscapes and support wildlife. This initiative is in complete alignment with our work as a botanic garden to care for plants and safeguard them for the future.”

As part of the Global Genome Initiative’s commitment to train the next generation of genomic scientists, a summer field team of young and aspiring scientists will assist the sampling project. The team includes one Washington, D.C.-based high school student enrolled in the natural history museum’s Youth Engagement through Science internship program, two undergraduate students, a graduate student and a Peter Buck Postdoctoral Fellow. The team will follow the Global Genome Initiative’s standardized research-grade genomic sampling protocols to preserve specimens on their way from the gardens to permanent storage in the Smithsonian’s biorepository located at the Museum Support Center in Suitland, Md. Scientists around the globe will gain access to the samples through the Global Genome Biodiversity Network’s data portal.