Collaborative Research: AToL: PorToL - The Porifera Tree of Life Project

在Robert W. Thacker博士的指导下，阿拉巴马大学伯明翰分校获得了一笔资助，用于组装海绵的系统发育树。海绵是一种古老的动物类群，身体结构简单。它们在过滤水中的细菌和其他小食物颗粒方面非常有效，在世界上的海洋和淡水栖息地中发现了数千种不同的海绵物种。海绵除了具有重要的生态作用外，还能产生潜在的新药，并承载着极其多样化的微生物生命。尽管海绵广泛存在于水生栖息地，但对它们的研究却落后于其他更具魅力的海洋动物。对于那些有兴趣破译它们的分类、分类和进化关系的人来说，海绵给他们带来了特别的困难，因为海绵的身体具有很强的可塑性，每个人都不同。这些困难阻碍了海绵生物学和生物多样性基础研究的进展，包括旨在了解动物进化的比较研究，以及保护或经济开发水生生态系统的努力。利用来自8000个海绵标本的分子遗传学数据，该项目将提供一个系统发育背景，这将提高对海绵生物学各个方面的理解。在生命之树中适当地纳入海绵是必要的，因为人们普遍认为海绵构成了通向更复杂动物的主要躯干。该项目的数据将验证这一假设，并解决海绵生命树中的许多“分支”问题。该项目将通过创建一个可访问互联网的数据库来协助国际海绵研究界的交流与合作。该项目将提供大量的推广和教育机会，包括本科生和研究生培训，密集的实地课程，专业研讨会和会议专题讨论会。该项目通过帮助追踪在医学和工业中有用的关键基因（和化学标记）的起源和分布，以及通过建立早期动物进化研究的新模型系统，使整个社会受益。

A grant has been awarded to the University of Alabama at Birmingham under the direction of Dr. Robert W. Thacker for assembling the phylogenetic tree of sponges. Sponges are an ancient animal group with simple body construction. They are extremely efficient at filtering bacteria and other small food particles from the water in which they live, with thousands of different sponge species found in the world's oceans and freshwater habitats. Along with their important ecological roles, sponges can yield potential new medicines and host an extraordinary diversity of microbial life. Despite their widespread presence in aquatic habitats, the study of sponges has lagged behind that of other more charismatic marine fauna. Sponges pose special difficulties for those interested in deciphering their taxonomy, classification, and evolutionary relationships because sponge bodies are quite plastic, varying from one individual to the next. These difficulties hamper progress in basic studies of sponge biology and biodiversity, including comparative studies aimed at understanding the evolution of animals and efforts to conserve or economically exploit aquatic ecosystems. Using molecular genetic data from 8,000 sponge specimens, this project will provide a phylogenetic context that will improve the understanding of all aspects of sponge biology. Proper Incorporation of sponges in the Tree of Life is imperative, because there is wide consensus that sponges comprise the primary trunk leading to more complex animals. Data from this project will test this hypothesis and resolve many "branches" within the sponge tree of life. This project will assist communication and collaboration within the international sponge research community by creating an internet-accessible database. This project will provide numerous outreach and educational opportunities, including undergraduate and graduate student training, intensive field courses, professional workshops, and conference symposia. This project benefits society as a whole by helping to track the origin and distribution of crucial genes (and chemical markers) that are useful in medicine and industry and by establishing new model systems for the study of early animal evolution.