Overview of African naked mole-rat Heterocephalus glaber for bioprospecting, and access and benefit sharing in Ethiopia
Genetic Resources Access and Benefit Sharing Directorate, Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute, P.O. Box 30726, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Review Article
GSC Biological and Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2018, 04(01), 025–037
Article DOI: 10.30574/gscbps.2018.4.1.0042
Publication history:
Received on 01 June 2018; revised on 19 June 2018; accepted on 25 June 2018
Abstract:
Biodiversity in developing countries such as Ethiopia has been accessed for a long time, for various purposes, by outside researchers and private companies with little or no returns to conservation activities and with no equitable sharing of the benefits resulting from the commercial use of genetic resources. Ethiopia now aims to conserve, sustainably use and share the benefits from bioprospecting of its richer biodiversity by developing legislations which practically put in place the contents of basic principles of the international treaties such as the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Nagoya Protocol. Bioprospecting of potentially valuable genetic resources from the country’s biodiversity-rich regions can bring monetary and non-monetary benefits from users, bioprospectors and investors. This review also aims to have an overview of the really bizarre looking, little explored and economically important rodent animal, the East African naked mole-rat, Heterocephalus glaber, from the Horn of Africa, for Bioprospecting and Access and Benefit Sharing in Ethiopia. It reveals that this animal has lots of peculiar morphological, physiological, ecological and environmental adaptations, which attract the attention of outside researchers to conduct analgesic, anti-cancer and anti-aging and various other innovative scientific researches, or invite bioprospectors to undergo medicinal, pharmaceutical and industrial bioprospecting on the animal genetic resource. However, any research and development studies related with animal bioprospecting in Ethiopia should be complemented by the conservation, sustainable utilization of biodiversity, and the access and benefit sharing of this animal genetic resource.
Keywords:
Access and Benefit Sharing; African naked mole-rat; Bioprospecting; Ethiopia; Heterocephalus glaber
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Copyright © 2018 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Liscense 4.0.
