Conservation genetics

Part of a series on
Genetics
Key components Chromosome DNA RNA Genome Heredity Nucleotide Mutation Genetic variation Allele Amino acid Outline Index
History and topics Introduction History Evolution (molecular) Population genetics Mendelian inheritance Quantitative genetics Molecular genetics
Research Geneticist DNA sequencing Genetic engineering Genomics ( template) Medical genetics Branches of genetics
Fields Classical Conservation Cytogenetics Ecological Immunogenetics Microbial Molecular Population Quantitative
Personalized medicine Personalized medicine
Category
v t e

Conservation genetics is an interdisciplinary subfield of population genetics that aims to understand the dynamics of genes in a population for the purpose of natural resource management, conservation of genetic diversity, and the prevention of species extinction. Scientists involved in conservation genetics come from a variety of fields including population genetics, research in natural resource management, molecular ecology, molecular biology, evolutionary biology, and systematics. The genetic diversity within species is one of the three fundamental components of biodiversity (along with species diversity and ecosystem diversity),^[1] so it is an important consideration in the wider field of conservation biology.