About Applied Conservation Genetics

The Applied Conservation Genetics Unit is a molecular laboratory in the Western Cape, South Africa and was established through collaboration between the Endangered Wildlife Trust and the Department of Botany and Zoology at Stellenbosch University. We focus on applied conservation genetic research of threatened/endangered southern African vertebrate species.

We use environmental DNA (eDNA) to detect organisms in the wild and metabarcoding approaches to identify species, and map distributions. Population genetic and genomic approaches are used to investigate effective population sizes, population stability, resilience and subpopulation connectivity.