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

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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.