The future of comparative biology in a phylogenetic age: Enabling the power and potential of the genealogy of life

动物、植物、真菌和微生物物种之间的进化关系是一个庞大、复杂、分支的网络，生物学家称之为生命之树。获得所有生物的完整生命之树是科学中的一个巨大挑战，与调查物质的性质或宇宙的起源相同的智力规模：它是理解我们的世界的基础，对人类的可持续性至关重要，并且作为未来发现的框架至关重要。科学家们通过将生物学与计算机科学相结合，并成功地生成了数千甚至数百万物种的大型家谱，在这一挑战中取得了重大进展。这些大型系统发育树现在可供生物学许多分支的研究人员使用-从基因组学到生态学-并且在医学，农业，工业和减缓气候变化的应用科学中具有很大的前景。至关重要的是，科学家为这一科学探索领域制定未来愿景，并明确生物遗传学在美国学术，企业和政府机构生物多样性科学战略整合中的核心作用。为了实现这一愿景，该项目制定了一个为期三年的催化会议和研讨会计划，以汇集和扩大生命之树社区。通过联合生物学家、计算专家以及来自企业实体、基金会和政府机构的代表，系列会议将产生一种机制，为生物多样性科学的战略愿景提供科学投入。系列研讨会将通过解决三个主要目标影响涉及生物多样性和进化的许多研究领域：（1）确定在生成，存储和可视化生命谱系方面的挑战和进展，（2）将大型数据层与生命树相结合，（3）为系统发育生物学的未来制定明确的计划和令人信服的愿景。研讨会和催化会议将包括学生和早期职业科学家，以及教育工作者和主要企业，政府和非营利组织的成员，旨在建立跨越利益集团的新的，持久的伙伴关系。这些会议的成果将包括教育材料、强调更广泛使用生命之树的出版物以及开放源码并向广大受众提供的软件方面的进展。系列讲习班结束时，与会者将编写一份白色文件，讨论生物多样性数据长期可持续性的想法和挑战。

The evolutionary relationships among species of animals, plants, fungi and microbes is a large, complex, branching network that biologists call the Tree of Life. Obtaining the complete Tree of Life for all living things is a grand challenge in science, on the same intellectual scale as investigating the nature of matter or the origin of the universe: it is fundamental to understanding our world, central to human sustainability, and critical as a framework for future discovery. Scientists have made major progress toward this challenge by combining biology with computer science and successfully generating large genealogies of thousands and even millions of species. These large phylogenetic trees are now available to researchers in many branches of biology -- from genomics to ecology -- and have great promise for applied science in medicine, agriculture, industry, and climate-change mitigation. It is critical that scientists develop a future vision for this area of scientific exploration and make clear the central role of phylogenetics in the strategic integration of biodiversity science across US academic, corporate and government institutions. To achieve this vision, this project has developed a three-year program of catalysis meetings and workshops to bring together and enlarge the Tree of Life community. By uniting a wide range of biologists, computational experts, and representatives from corporate entities, foundations, and government agencies, the meeting series will generate a mechanism for scientific input into the strategic vision of biodiversity science.The workshops series will impact many areas of research involving biodiversity and evolution by addressing three over-arching goals: (1) identifying challenges and progress in generating, storing and visualizing the genealogy of life, (2) integrating large data layers with the tree of life, and (3) developing a clear plan and compelling vision for the future of phylogenetic biology. The workshops and catalysis meetings will include students and early-career scientists, as well as educators and members of key corporate, government and non-profit organizations, with the aim to create new, lasting partnerships that bridge across interest groups. Tangible products of the meetings will include educational materials, publications that highlight broader uses of Tree of Life as well as advances in software that will be open source and available to a wide audience. At completion of the workshop series the participants will produce a white paper discussing ideas and challenges for long-term sustainability of biodiversity data.