GoLife: Collaborative Research: Integrative Genealogy, Ecology and Phenomics of Deltocephaline Leafhoppers (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae), and their Microbial Associates

尽管昆虫具有巨大的生态和经济重要性，但大多数物种只能从少数博物馆标本中了解到，关于它们的行为或生态联系的数据很少。大多数昆虫也属于大的谱系，由于它们的极端多样性，缺乏分类学专业知识，以及很难获得适合详细遗传学研究的标本，因此很难进行全面的研究。该项目将整合一个这样的昆虫谱系的多个数据层，即吸汁叶蝉亚科Deltocephalinae，包括6,600个物种，包括许多农业害虫、入侵物种和受保护关注的物种。产品将包括一套全面和开放获取的数字工具，用于确定叶蝉物种和更高的类群，显示这些类群之间的关系，以及一个在线数据库，其中组织关于每个物种的信息，包括地理和季节分布、解剖特征、基因组信息以及与植物和微生物的联系。这些数据将有助于识别和跟踪入侵物种，并有助于增进对全世界叶蝉生物多样性的了解。他们还将帮助识别与叶蝉物种传播植物病害病原体的能力相关的遗传特征，从而加强对农业和粮食安全威胁的预测和管理。该项目将构建叶蝉亚科Deltocephalinae的开放系统发育。它还将创建一个在线数字研究平台，将以前文献的命名、形态、生态和分布数据与数字化收藏相结合，为叶蝉创建一套全面的识别工具和图文并茂的分类页面。它还将建立一个基因组库，并使用高效的下一代DNA测序技术来获取遗传数据，这些数据为系统发育关系、微生物关联(包括内共生菌和植物病原体)和生态特征(食物广度和寄主-植物关联)提供了信息。它将为学生和现有的分类学家提供强化培训，以促进全球合作努力，全面记录叶蝉及其植物和微生物伙伴的生物多样性。最后，该项目将提供强大的网络基础设施和模型工作流程，以支持对其他不同生物体群体的研究。

Despite the enormous ecological and economic importance of insects, the majority of species are known only from a few museum specimens with little data on their behavior or ecological associations. Most insects also belong to large lineages that are difficult to study comprehensively because of their extreme diversity, the shortage of taxonomic expertise, and the difficulty of obtaining specimens suitable for detailed genetic study. This project will integrate multiple data layers for one such insect lineage, the plant-sap-sucking leafhopper subfamily Deltocephalinae, comprising 6,600 species and including many agricultural pests, invasive species, and species of conservation concern. Products will include a comprehensive and open-access set of digital tools for identifying leafhopper species and higher groups, a phylogeny showing the relationships among these groups, and an online database that organizes information on each species including geographic and seasonal distribution, anatomical traits, genomic information and associations with plants and microbes. These data will help facilitate identification and tracking of invasive species and contribute to improved knowledge of leafhopper biodiversity worldwide. They also will help identify genetic traits associated with the ability of leafhopper species to transmit plant disease pathogens, thereby enhancing prediction and management of threats to agriculture and food security.This project will construct an open-access phylogeny for the leafhopper subfamily Deltocephalinae. It also will create an online digital research platform that combines nomenclatural, morphological, ecological and distributional data from the previous literature and digitized collections to create a comprehensive set of identification tools and illustrated taxon pages for the leafhoppers. It also will establish a genome bank and use efficient next-generation DNA sequencing technology to capture genetic data informative of phylogenetic relationships, microbial associations (including endosymbionts and plant pathogens), and ecological traits (diet breadth and host-plant associations). It will provide intensive training for both students and established taxonomists to facilitate a global collaborative effort to fully document the biodiversity of leafhoppers and their plant and microbial associates. Finally, the project will provide a robust cyberinfrastructure and model workflows to support research on other diverse groups of organisms.