AToL: Collaborative Proposal: Assembling the Tree of Life: An Integrated Approach to the Origin and Diversification of Protostomes

哈佛大学的贡萨洛·吉里贝特博士获得了一笔赠款，用于组装原口动物生命树的基本骨架，其中包括除与脊椎动物直接相关的动物外的所有三胚层动物。原口动物构成了170万种生物中的100多万种，包括熟悉的动物，如软体动物，昆虫，扁形虫，蛔虫和许多其他具有医学和经济重要性的动物。然而，这些群体之间的关系仍然存在争议，因此动物生命树的主干目前无法在没有很大程度的不确定性的情况下提出。该提案将尽可能广泛地收集和传播关于选定的具有代表性的原口动物的信息，以解决它们在5.4亿多年来的起源和进化问题。为了做到这一点，我们将整合现存和灭绝动物的解剖数据与发展数据，使用细胞谱系研究和广泛的基因组信息。将收集大量原口类物种的这些数据，并将在非模式生物中进行前所未有的研究。授予的赠款将有助于在不同的学术水平的学生的培训，强调在科学代表性不足的群体。研究结果将通过与世界上五个最著名的自然历史博物馆的合作向社会传播，包括美国的哈佛自然历史博物馆和美国自然历史博物馆，以及澳大利亚和丹麦最重要的博物馆。PI还打算在非专业科学杂志上发表一篇文章，供广大的外行读者阅读。

A grant has been awarded to Dr. Gonzalo Giribet of Harvard University to assemble the basic backbone of the protostome tree of life, which includes all triploblastic animals except those directly related to vertebrates. Protostomes constitute more than one million of the 1.7 million named species of living organisms, including familiar animals such as mollusks, insects, flatworms, roundworms, and many others of medical and economic importance. However, relationships among these groups are still contentious, so the backbone of the animal tree of life cannot currently be proposed without a large degree of uncertainty. This proposal will integrate and disseminate the broadest possible collection of information on selected representative protostomes to address questions of their origin and evolution over more than 540 million years. In order to do this we will integrate anatomical data on extant and extinct fauna with developmental data using cell-lineage studies and broad-based genomic information. Those data will be collected for a large pool of protostome species which will be studied at a level never before attempted in non-model organisms. The awarded grant will contribute to the training of students at different academic levels, emphasizing underrepresented groups in science. Results will be disseminated to society through partnership with five of the most prominent natural history museums in the world, including the Harvard Museum of Natural History and the American Museum of Natural History in the USA, and the most important museums in Australia and Denmark. It is also the intention of the PI to publish an article in non-specialist scientific magazines for a broad lay audience.