Cataloguing Diversity of Ciliated Protists Through the Synergy of Morphological and Genetic Approaches

通过形态学和遗传学方法的协同对纤毛原生生物的多样性进行编目

• 批准号: 0103599
• 负责人: Slava Epstein
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Northeastern University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2001
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2001-08-01 至 2005-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0103599&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Cataloguing; Diversity; Ciliated; Protists; Through

DEB-0103599Slava EpsteinA grant has been awarded to Dr. Slava Epstein at Northeastern University to conduct a high-resolution identification and inventory of the free-living ciliates along Northeast Atlantic coast. The target organisms comprise the Phylum Ciliophora and are among the most important microorganisms in the ocean. Genetically, this phylum is likely to be more diverse than the whole animal kingdom, yet the species diversity of ciliates cannot be presently assessed even with an order of magnitude accuracy. This is a reflection of the fact that traditional morphological methods of ciliate (and other protists) identification and cataloguing are not sufficient to describe their biodiversity. This study will integrate traditional morphology and comparative genomics into one synergistic approach. This will enable creation of an innovative catalogue of marine ciliates in the form of collection of specimens, their DNA, specific gene sequences, as well as an Internet-based searchable database. This database will include rich verbal and pictorial morphological information, including still-, 3-D-, and video images, data on genetic diversity, all cross-referenced to the earlier data. No database of this kind is available today. The marriage between traditional morphological and modern molecular tools in studying biological diversity is an important development in the area of protozoology. In the most immediate sense, it will greatly facilitate identification and classification of the ciliates that are targeted by research in systematics, population biology, ecology, physiology, biochemistry, and evolution. More generally, this comprehensive catalogue of the ciliates will become an integral part of the process of documenting the overall diversity of life on our planet.

DEB-0103599斯拉瓦·爱泼斯坦东北大学的斯拉瓦·爱泼斯坦博士获得了一笔赠款，用于对东北大西洋沿岸沿着自由生活的纤毛虫进行高分辨率的鉴定和清点。 目标生物包括纤毛门，是海洋中最重要的微生物之一。 从遗传学上讲，这个门可能比整个动物王国更多样化，但纤毛虫的物种多样性目前无法评估，即使是数量级的准确性。 这反映了这样一个事实，即传统的纤毛虫（和其他原生生物）识别和编目的形态学方法不足以描述它们的生物多样性。 这项研究将传统形态学和比较基因组学整合为一个协同的方法。 这将有助于以收集标本、其DNA、特定基因序列以及基于互联网的可搜索数据库的形式创建海洋纤毛虫的创新目录。该数据库将包括丰富的文字和图片形态信息，包括静态，三维和视频图像，遗传多样性数据，所有交叉引用的早期数据。 目前还没有这类数据库。传统形态学与现代分子生物学的结合是原生动物学领域的一个重要发展。 在最直接的意义上，它将大大有助于识别和分类的纤毛虫，在系统学，种群生物学，生态学，生理学，生物化学和进化的研究目标。 更一般地说，这一纤毛虫的全面目录将成为记录我们星球上生命整体多样性过程的一个组成部分。