To avert mass extinction, is genetic engineering the best option? Cornell University rightOriginal StudyPosted by Blaine Friedlander-Cornell on September 30 2013With estimates that 15 to 40 percent of the world s species will be lost over the next 40 years due to warming and habitat loss researchers are considering the option of a genetic rescue.The technique would involve �rescuing a target population or species with adaptive alleles or gene variants using genetic engineering� write Josh Donlan Cornell visiting fellow in ecology and evolutionary biology and his colleagues.The method is �an increasingly viable . . . option which we call facilitated adaptation  [but it] has been little discussed� adds Donlan co-author of an article about the topic published in the journal Nature.To avert mass extinctions the group thinks that three options each with its own set of challenges complications and risks exist. They are:The Nature commentary draws from a recent workshop �Ecological and Genomic Exploration of Environmental Change� that occurred in March where scientists met to understand issues surrounding climate change adaptation. In those spirited discussions a hot question emerged: Is managed relocation of animal and plant species really the only approach to averting extinction? Instead of moving plant and animal populations could genes be moved into populations?�Thus the term facilitated adaptation  was born� says Donlan.Averting climate change altogether would be a preferable—albeit unlikely—outcome. The scientists fear that implementing genetic solutions could potentially deter other climate change action.�A serious concern is that even the possibility of using genetic-engineering tools to rescue biodiversity will encourage inaction with regard to climate change. Before genetic engineering can be seriously entertained as a tool for preserving biodiversity conservationists need to agree on the types of scenario for which facilitated adaptation managed relocation and other adaptation strategies might be appropriate and where such strategies are likely to fail or introduce more serious problems� they write.Source: Cornell UniversityYou are free to share this article under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported license.