PEET: Revitalizing Taxonomic Expertise in Digenea for the 21st Century: The Haploporid Monographs

PEET：振兴 21 世纪 Digenea 分类学专业知识：单孔虫专着

• 批准号: 0529684
• 负责人: Robin Overstreet
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Southern Mississippi
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-09-01 至 2011-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0529684&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: PEET; Revitalizing; Taxonomic; Expertise; Digenea

Headquartered at the Parasitology Section of The Gulf Coast Research Laboratory (GCRL, The University of Southern Mississippi's Ocean Springs campus), this project establishes and strengthens an international network of over 30 parasitologists, ichthyologists, educators, curators, and students at ten universities and government organizations in seven states and ten countries. The project will preserve and revitalize taxonomic expertise in a megadiverse group of soft-bodied flatworms, flukes (Platyhelminthes: Digenea), and focuses on a family of flukes (Haploporidae) comprised of members that infect the gut of herbivorous fishes in fresh and marine waters worldwide. The project will train a minimum of three PhD students and two post-doctoral fellows to 1) monograph the four subfamilies of Haploporidae, 2) translate and globally disseminate newly-generated taxonomic expertise, and 3) recruit, educate, and inspire the next generation of digenean taxonomists. Each trainee will be a journeyman charged with actively participating in all aspects of their research and ultimately producing an exemplary, gold-standard monograph for their group. The need for such decisive actions is clear. A lineage of elder statesmen in digenean taxonomy nears extinction as professors die or retire before being replaced in their field; few can identify or properly collect and fix specimens; and young students are learning neither the craft of alpha taxonomy nor proper specimen preparation techniques. New haploporids will be collected from the under-explored regions of South America, southern Africa, Middle East, Indo-Pacific, and Australia. Morphological characteristics will be augmented by molecular data with help from the Gene Array Technology Laboratory (USM, GCRL) and Dr Vasyl Tkach (University of North Dakota, Grand Forks). The Gulf Coast Geospatial Center (USM) will generate GIS maps of collection sites. Other parasites will be routed to other taxonomic authorities; Dr George Benz (Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro)- fish copepods, Dr Delane Kritsky (University of Idaho)- select monogeneans, and Dr Leellen Solter (Illinois Natural History Survey)- select microsporans. Trainees will mentor high school interns from The Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science (Columbus) as well as those recruited from GCRL-affiliates and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). These interns will obtain research experiences in parasite taxonomy and systematics. K-8 students will touch and observe marine symbionts and parasites of coastal MS, and the public will be offered a lecture series at the Marine Education Center and Aquarium (Biloxi, MS). Country-of-origin museums, The Philadelphia Academy of Sciences, and The GCRL Museum will be enhanced by deposition of fish and invertebrate vouchers. The results will be disseminated by 1) publishing four monographs in the peer-reviewed literature, 2) presenting new discoveries at scientific meetings, 3) hosting The Digenean Systematics Workshop, 4) producing a CD-ROM, 5) launching The NSF-PEET Haploporid Taxonomy and Systematics Website at http://digenea.com/, 6) accessioning molecular sequences in GenBank and 7) indexing the website as a Global Species Database. Each activity ensures advancement of scientific knowledge within and beyond the field of parasitology while simultaneously promoting The GCRL Parasitology Unit as a focus for platyhelminth biodiversity studies and ecology.

该项目总部设在墨西哥湾沿岸研究实验室（GCRL，南密西西比大学海洋泉校区）的寄生虫学部分，该项目建立并加强了一个由来自七个州和十个国家的十所大学和政府组织的30多名寄生虫学家、鱼类学家、教育工作者、策展人和学生组成的国际网络。该项目将保存和恢复一种种类丰富的软体扁虫——吸虫（platyhelmintes: Digenea）的分类学专业知识，并将重点放在吸虫科（Haploporidae）上，该科由感染全球淡水和海水中草食性鱼类肠道的成员组成。该项目将培养至少3名博士生和2名博士后，以完成以下任务：1)对单足虫科的4个亚科进行专题研究；2)翻译并在全球传播新产生的分类专业知识；3)招募、教育和激励下一代的digenean分类学家。每个受训者都将是一个熟练的人，负责积极参与他们研究的各个方面，并最终为他们的小组制作一部模范的、金标准的专著。采取这种果断行动的必要性是显而易见的。随着教授在各自领域未被取代就去世或退休，一群年长的几内亚分类学政治家濒临灭绝；很少有人能识别或正确收集和固定标本；年轻的学生既没有学习阿尔法分类学的手艺，也没有学习适当的标本制备技术。新的单足虫将从南美、非洲南部、中东、印度太平洋和澳大利亚等未被开发的地区收集。形态学特征将在基因阵列技术实验室（USM， GCRL）和Vasyl Tkach博士（北达科他大学，大福克斯）的帮助下通过分子数据增强。墨西哥湾沿岸地理空间中心（USM）将生成收集点的GIS地图。其他寄生虫将被送到其他分类学权威机构；George Benz博士（中田纳西州大学，Murfreesboro）-鱼类桡足类，Delane Kritsky博士（爱达荷大学）-选择单系动物，Leellen Solter博士（伊利诺伊州自然历史调查）-选择小孢子动物。受训者将指导来自密西西比数学与科学学校（哥伦布）的高中实习生，以及来自gcrl附属机构和传统黑人学院和大学（HBCUs）的实习生。这些实习生将获得寄生虫分类学和系统学方面的研究经验。K-8年级的学生将触摸和观察海岸MS的海洋共生体和寄生虫，公众将在海洋教育中心和水族馆（Biloxi， MS）进行系列讲座。原产国博物馆、费城科学院和GCRL博物馆将通过鱼类和无脊椎动物代金券的沉积得到加强。研究结果将通过以下方式传播：1)在同行评议的文献中出版四本专著，2)在科学会议上展示新发现，3)主持迪根尼系统研讨会，4)制作光盘，5)启动NSF-PEET单足虫分类和系统网站http://digenea.com/, 6)在GenBank中加入分子序列，7)将该网站索引为全球物种数据库。每项活动都确保了寄生虫学领域内外的科学知识的进步，同时促进了GCRL寄生虫学单位作为白蛉生物多样性研究和生态学的重点。