What lies underneath: Conserving the oceans’ genetic resources Jesús M. Arrietaa,1, Sophie Arnaud-Haondb, and Carlos M. Duartea aDepartment of Global Change Research, Institut Mediterrani d’Estudis Avançats, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)- Universitat de les Illes Balears (UIB), 07190 Esporles, Mallorca, Spain; and bInstitut Français de Recherche sur la Mer (IFREMER)-Department “Etude des Ecosystèmes Profonds” - DEEP, Centre de Brest, BP 70, 29280 Plouzané Cedex, France Edited by Steven D. Gaines, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, and accepted by the Editorial Board August 10, 2010 (received for review October 29, 2009) The marine realm represents 70% of the surface of the biosphere and contains a rich variety of organisms, including more than 34 of the 36 living phyla, some of which are only found in the oceans. The number of marine species used by humans is growing at unprecedented rates, including the rapid domestication of marine species for aquaculture and the discovery of natural products and genes of medical and biotechnological interest in marine biota. The rapid growth in the human appropriation of marine genetic resources (MGRs), with over 18,000 natural products and 4,900 patents associated with genes of marine organisms, with the latter growing at 12% per year, demonstrates that the use of MGRs is no longer a vision but a growing source of biotechnological and business opportunities. The diversification of the use of marine living resources by humans calls for an urgent revision of the goals and policies of marine protected areas, to include the protection of MGRs and address emerging issues like biopiracy or benefit sharing. Specific challenges are the protection of these valuable resources in international waters, where no universally accepted legal framework exists to protect and regulate the exploitation of MGRs, and the unresolved issues on patenting components of marine life. Implementing steps toward the protection of MGRs is essential to ensure their sustainable use and to support the flow of future findings of medical and biotechnological interest. marine protected areas | marine reserves | natural products | gene patents | law of the sea he protection of marine areas to (MGRs) and the associated emerging organisms at a rate of 0.93% per year (Fig. manage fisheries in a sustainable challenges for the shared use of the oceans 1A). This growth is dwarfed by a rapid Tmanner has been in place for and the conservation of the resources they increase in the inventory of marine natural centuries, since Polynesian cul- contain (7). We do so based on the ex- products and genes of commercial interest tures closed areas to fishing to protect amination of patterns in the use of marine derived from bioprospecting efforts. The breeding grounds and allow recovery from organisms to derive natural products number of natural products described overfishing (1), but the usefulness of no- and gene-associated patents, using data from marine species is growing at a rate of take areas was conclusively demonstrated derived from inventories of natural prod- 4% per year (Fig. 1B and Table 1), which by the recovery of fish stocks in World War ucts (SI Text) and data extracted from is much faster than the rate of species II mine fields in the North Sea closed GenBank (8), respectively. We then dis- discovery, because many species yield to fisheries (2). Marine protected areas cuss the need to regulate the use of these multiple natural products. Indeed, about (MPAs) have since emerged as key instru- emerging marine resources and the lead- 18,000 natural products have been re- ments to protect fish stocks and other living ing role that MPAs could have in the ported from marine organisms belonging resources from overexploitation (3) and protection of MGRs. to about 4,800 named species (16) since have expanded to exceed 5,000 locations, the initial reports in the 1950s. The growth of patents that include genes covering about 0.7% of the oceans (4). Marine Biodiversity and the Ocean’s of marine origin is even faster. The patent The advent of biotechnology has broad- Bounty of Genetic Resources ened human use of biological resources far (PAT) division of GenBank (8) (release Marine species make up about 9.7% of beyond food to include other valuable 165) lists more than 5 million records of total named species (9) (Table 1), a pro- products, such as flavors, fragrances, en- DNA sequences deposited in different portion comparable to the share of re- patent offices worldwide. Most of these se- zymes, and medicines. Although terrestrial search effort on biodiversity allocated to quences belong to a few selected species, plants have been used as medicines for marine systems (10) and the fraction of mainly humans, pathogens, and model or- millennia and still support the needs of marine species among those described ganisms. Although the patent inventory in 80% of the world population (5), the use each year (9). However, the most surpris- GenBank is not exhaustive, the reported of marine biological resources for pur- ing discoveries in biodiversity in the past sequences include DNA from 3,634 named poses other than food is now blooming. decades have taken place in marine sys- species. This register includes 4,928 non- The discovery of organisms containing tems, including the discovery of a whole redundant marine gene sequences derived molecules and genes of commercial in- ecosystem based on chemosynthesis in terest is growing in parallel to the explo- hydrothermal vents in 1977 (11); the de- ration of marine biodiversity. Historically, scription of a previously unnoticed meta- Author contributions: J.M.A., S.A.-H., and C.M.D. designed MPAs have been set up for the conserva- zoan phylum, the Loricifera, discovered in research; J.M.A. and S.A.-H. performed research; J.M.A. tion of general marine biodiversity or for 1983 (12); and the discovery in the 1980s and S.A.-H. analyzed data; J.M.A. wrote the programs; the preservation of fisheries resources (6), and J.M.A., S.A.-H., and C.M.D. wrote the paper. of the marine phototrophic prokaryote fl but the increasing use of marine species Prochlorococcus, which turned out to be The authors declare no con ict of interest. as sources of genetic resources calls for the most abundant photosynthetic organ- This article is a PNAS Direct Submission. S.D.G. is a guest editor invited by the Editorial Board. a reassessment of the scope of MPAs to ism on Earth (13). Recent coordinated 1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: include the protection of these key international efforts, such as the Census of [email protected]. emerging resources. Marine Life (14) and the World Register This article contains supporting information online at Here, we report on the accelerating rate of Marine Species (15), are propelling the www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas. of discovery of marine genetic resources growth of the inventory of named marine 0911897107/-/DCSupplemental. 18318–18324 | PNAS | October 26, 2010 | vol. 107 | no. 43 www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.0911897107 Downloaded by guest on September 23, 2021 SPECIAL FEATURE: PERSPECTIVE Table 1. Number of described species, species source of patents, and percentage of described species resulting in patents for marine and terrestrial environments Percentage of described species Described species (15, 61) Patented species (8) being a source of patents Total Terrestrial Marine Total Terrestrial Marine Total Terrestrial Marine Prokaryotes 7,928 7,173 755 1,619 1,401 218 20.42% 19.53% 28.87% 90.48% 9.52% 86.53% 13.47% Eukaryotes 1,800,000 1,653,045 146,955 2,019 1,679 340 0.11% 0.10% 0.23% 91.84% 8.16% 83.16% 16.84% Total 1,807,928 1,660,218 147,710 3,638 3,080 558 0.20% 0.19% 0.38% from 558 distinct named marine species cloning and sequencing techniques allow of named species (Table 1). In contrast, (Table S1). Since 1999, the number of ma- description and patenting of genes of spe- the proportion of named marine species rine species with genes associated with cies yet to be named or even discovered. with genes included in patents (28%) far patents has been increasing at an impressive The 18,000 marine natural products exceeds the contribution of marine or- rate of about 12% species per year, which reported in Table 1 comprise about 10% ganisms to the total inventory of named is more than 10 times faster than the rate of total natural products known (17), species (10%) (Table 1). Wild marine of description of marine species (Fig. 1A). which is in good agreement with the share species used as source of natural products This is, however, an underestimate, because of marine species in the total inventory outnumber by up to 18-fold those ever domesticated, while the number of spe- cies included in patent applications is growing almost 4 times faster than the 160,000 A number of domesticated marine species (18) (Fig. 1). Thus, appropriation of MGRs is progressing much faster than the already impressive rate of domestication 140,000 described for aquaculture (19). Taxonomic Provenance of MGRs 120,000 The taxonomic origin of MGRs covers the 5,000 entire breadth of the Tree of Life, from Archaea to vertebrates (Fig. 2 and Fig. S1), as source of MNP in contrast to the limited taxonomic range 4,000 of domesticated species. Although the 600 bulk of the Earth’s metabolic diversity re- number of species sides in prokaryotic organisms (18), natu- as source of gene patents ral products of marine origin are almost 400 entirely (97%) derived from eukaryotic sources.