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PLANT GENOMICS

Decolonizing botanical genomics

Nature Plants volume 7, pages 1542–1543 (2021)Cite this article

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By sieving through the plant genomic literature for the last 20 years, a study uncovered a disconnection between the research locales and plants’ native ranges. Colonialism, both past and present, might be behind this disparity.

Botany has deep roots in colonialism. The rise of the Western empires in the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries has intricately woven botany into Europe’s global ambitions. Voyages embarked to find new worlds (‘new’ from the perspective of the colonizers) and to seek new spices, medicines and exotic curiosities. Western botany enjoyed a renaissance in this period. Botanical gardens and herbaria across Europe amassed huge collections of plants from around the world, some of which — such as the rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis) and fever tree (Cinchona spp.) — were turned into highly profitable commodities that further fuelled the global dominance of the empires. However, from the perspective of the colonized, the plants, and their knowledge of the plants, were pirated and used against them. Such imbalance is not just a socio-economic issue that persists to date, but has also profoundly affected how we practice science. In this issue of Nature Plants, by examining the plant genomic literature for the last 20 years, Marks et al.1 report a striking influence of colonialism on the landscape of plant genomics.

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Boyce Thompson Institute, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Fay-Wei Li

  2. Plant Biology Section, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Fay-Wei Li

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  1. Fay-Wei Li
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Correspondence to Fay-Wei Li.

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Li, FW. Decolonizing botanical genomics. Nat. Plants 7, 1542–1543 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-021-01041-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-021-01041-6

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