AToL: Collaborative Research: Assembling the Beetle Tree of Life

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0531754Maddison Human beings, also it would appear, have "an inordinate fondness for beetles" (to cite J.B.S. Haldane), at least an inordinate fondness for the study of this species-rich and life-history diverse lineage of insects. A team led by Dr. Brian Farrell at Harvard University, Dr. Michael Whiting at Brigham Young University, and Dr. David Maddison at the University of Arizona, with colleagues from around the world, will conduct an extensive study of beetle (insect order Coleoptera) phylogeny to provide the first broad scale view of beetle diversification. With ca. 350,000 described species, beetles comprise a huge fraction of the world's biota and are dominant in every terrestrial ecosystem. Beetles represent the most diverse and rapid radiation of any terrestrial organismal group, yet we have only a rudimentary knowledge of their deeper level phylogeny, and still do not understand even their most basic patterns of diversity. Collectively, beetles represent nearly every feeding habit among insects including herbivory and fungivory (feeding upon fungi), saprophagy (feeding upon decaying matter), predation and parasitism, and a thorough study of their evolutionary history would provide insight into the role of feeding habits in species diversity. The team of 40 leading beetle researchers worldwide, with expertise in nearly every beetle lineage, proposes to construct a framework phylogeny (genealogical tree) for all beetles, utilizing a 3-tier approach. Tier 1: 54 exemplar species, representing all major beetle lineages, will be sampled extensively for character data (morphology plus 23kb of DNA sequence data including complete mitochondrial genomes) to provide a robust outline of the relationships among the major (superfamily) groups of beetles. Tier 2: 300 additional species will sampled for morphology and 12kb of sequence data to establish relationships among beetle families. Tier 3: 3000 additional species will be sequenced for 1.5 kb of DNA sequence data, with morphology added for a subset of these, to better characterize the grand diversity of beetle phylogeny at the subfamilial level. Novel bioinformatics tools will be developed to streamline data processing for the molecular and morphological data, and will allow for greater efficiency, accuracy, and reproducibility of the data and associated results, while providing an online framework for collaboration by participants throughout the world. This represents the first time that coleopterists have collaborated on such a large-scale phylogenetic project, and the work should result in a robust estimate of beetle phylogeny that will provide a predictive basis for classification and integration of information on this ecologically and economically important group of insects. Information on all aspects of beetles will be disseminated through the Tree-of-Life website hosted at the University of Arizona, a traveling Spanish-language / English-language museum exhibit, and through publications and symposia. This research will provide training for graduate students, undergraduates, and high school students, including 10 female researchers and an undergraduate student with disabilities.