What would it take to describe the global diversity of parasites?
What would it take to describe the global diversity of parasites?
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DOI：
10.1101/815902
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发表时间：
2019-10
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
C. Carlson;T. Dallas;Laura W. Alexander;A. Phelan;Anna J. Phillips
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
C. Carlson;T. Dallas;Laura W. Alexander;A. Phelan;Anna J. Phillips
地球上有多少寄生虫？在这里，我们使用蠕虫寄生虫来强调我们对寄生虫多样性的了解是多么的少，以及我们目前的方法是多么的不足以描述地球上生命的全部范围。使用最大的宿主-寄生虫协会数据库和世界上最大的寄生虫收藏之一，我们估计全球共有大约100，000至350，000种脊椎动物的蠕虫体内寄生虫，其中85%至95%是科学未知的。两栖动物和爬行动物的寄生虫仍然是最未描述的，但大多数失踪物种可能是鸟类和硬骨鱼的寄生虫。在采样不足的国家，缺失的物种很可能是较小宿主的较小寄生虫，而这些物种在上个世纪大多数都没有得到充分的研究。按照目前的速度，全面采样、收集和命名脊椎动物蠕虫将需要几个世纪。虽然有些人认为宏观生态推断可以解决现有的数据限制，但我们认为，从一个小的和有偏见的多样性样本描述的模式不一定可靠，特别是随着全球变化越来越多地改变宿主-寄生虫网络。本着人类基因组计划和全球病毒组计划等登月计划的精神，我们呼吁全球努力改变寄生虫学，并尽可能多地描述全球寄生虫的多样性。大约十分之一的寄生蠕虫已被分类学家描述，而大多数物种仍然未知的科学。一些主要类群（爬行动物和两栖动物）和区域（非洲和东南亚）的数据缺乏情况尤其严重。几十年的工作已经产生了关于宿主-寄生虫相互作用的更大，更详细的数据集，但它们的实用性受到这些主要数据缺口的限制。按照目前的速度，这些差距可能需要数百年才能填补。我们建议，一个全球协调的项目可以大大加快这一进程，在跟踪全球变化的疾病影响方面发挥关键作用。这项工作将需要新的资金流，以及几个研究团体的共同努力。
How many parasites are there on Earth? Here, we use helminth parasites to highlight how little is known about parasite diversity, and how insufficient our current approach will be to describe the full scope of life on Earth. Using the largest database of host-parasite associations and one of the world’s largest parasite collections, we estimate a global total of roughly 100,000 to 350,000 species of helminth endoparasites of vertebrates, of which 85% to 95% are unknown to science. The parasites of amphibians and reptiles remain the most undescribed, but the majority of missing species are likely parasites of birds and bony fish. Missing species are disproportionately likely to be smaller parasites of smaller hosts in undersampled countries–species that have mostly been understudied over the last century. At current rates, it would take centuries to comprehensively sample, collect, and name vertebrate helminths. While some have suggested that macroecological inference can work around existing data limitations, we argue that patterns described from a small and biased sample of diversity aren’t necessarily reliable, especially as host-parasite networks are increasingly altered by global change. In the spirit of moonshots like the Human Genome Project and the Global Virome Project, we call for a global effort to transform parasitology and describe as much of global parasite diversity as possible. Significance Statement Roughly one in ten parasitic worms has been described by taxonomists, while the majority of species remain unknown to science. Data deficiencies are especially severe for some major groups (reptiles and amphibians) and regions (Africa and Southeast Asia). Decades of work have resulted in much larger, detailed datasets on host-parasite interactions, but their utility is limited by these major data gaps. At current rates, those gaps could take hundreds of years to be filled. We propose that a globally-coordinated project could dramatically speed up this process, playing a critical role in tracking the disease impacts of global change. This work will require new funding streams, and a concerted effort among several research communities.