MINSK, 24 March (BelTA) – Belarus will create a DNA bank of antarctic animals, BelTA learned from Vladislav Myamin, senior research fellow with the Center for Bioresources at the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (NASB), who participated in the fifth and seventh Belarusian Antarctic expeditions.
“Belarus will create its first genetic data bank of antarctic animals at the Center for Bioresources. This will be the first such bank in the Commonwealth of Independent States,” Vladislav Myamin said.
Polar explorers in Antarctica are currently collecting materials for genetic typing. They take a part of an animal's body, for instance, a feather, preserve it in alcohol, cool and storage it so that geneticists could later identify the animal's species even without seeing it. Around a hundred samples have already been gathered.
Vladislav Myamin noted that such genetic testing is necessary because in Antarctica there are many animals that have not been recorded yet, they have no names. “Genetic science enables us to identify whether a species is new to scientists or not. We may even discover a new species and pick a name for it,” Vladislav Myamin pointed out. Apart from animal body samples, the polar explorers have also collected several plant samples.
The National Academy of Sciences launched the ninth Belarusian Antarctic expedition in late October 2016. Some 40 tonnes of cargo, including parts and equipment for the second facility of the Belarusian Antarctic station, was loaded on the Russian research vessel Akademik Fyodorov in early November and shipped from Minsk to Saint Petersburg. In the middle of November, six Belarusian scientists set off for Antarctica. They are expected to return to Belarus on 23 April.
