RUI: Biodiversity of testate (shelled) amoebae in New England bogs and fens

我们生活在一个微生物星球上：微生物在地球上生活了30多亿年，从数量、生物量和生物多样性来看，它们构成了地球上的大部分生命。我们仍然对微生物的生物多样性知之甚少，尽管扩展我们的知识有可能促进与生态系统健康有关的国家利益。这个项目关注的是一组微生物，即有壳的阿米巴虫，这是新英格兰沼泽和沼泽中数量丰富的顶级捕食者。根据测试(贝壳)的形状和组成，变形虫有着丰富的分类历史；然而，这些特征被证明在鉴定方面具有误导性，因为有许多神秘的物种。因此，这个研究项目依赖于分子工具来探索它们跨越时间和空间的生物多样性。鉴于遗体阿米巴是气候变化的标志，并且在沼泽和沼泽等受威胁的湿地栖息地中大量存在，这样的研究非常重要。除了科学发现，这个研究项目还将培训一组本科生女性和一名博士后研究员，了解微生物的生物多样性。在古生态和现代研究中，变形虫都被用作生物指示物，一些类群被认为是泥炭藓优势生境中的顶级捕食者。这项研究项目将阐明新英格兰境内沼泽和沼泽中以及不同季节的遗体阿米巴的多样性。形态和系统发育物种的比较最初基于两个分子标记，然后通过转录组分析通过多位点描述，将允许探索这一支系的生物多样性。这项工作将通过评估细微的(局部的)和更大的(新英格兰)尺度变化来探索驱动阿米巴分布的生态因素。社区成员之间的模式也将通过对基因组中目标区域的高通量测序来表征，这使得能够检测罕见的社区成员。这项研究将从一个研究较少的真核生物分支中生成遗体阿米巴虫的图像、基因序列数据、比对、系统发育和转录本(即表达的基因)，所有这些都将向社区提供。从事这个项目的学生和博士后研究员将发展微生物多样性、显微镜和高通量测序数据分析方面的专业知识。参与者招募将旨在扩大代表人数不足的少数群体的参与。

We live on a microbial planet: microbes have inhabited the Earth for more than 3 billion years and comprise most of life on Earth in terms of number, biomass and biodiversity. We still know very little about the biodiversity of microbes, though extending our knowledge has the potential to advance the national interest in relation to ecosystem health. This project focuses on one group of microbes, namely the testate (shelled) amoebae, which are abundant and top predators in New England bogs and fens. Testate amoebae have a rich history of classification based on the shape and composition of their tests (shells); yet these traits have been shown to be misleading in relation to their identification, because there are many cryptic species. Hence, this research project relies on molecular tools to explore their biodiversity across time and space. Such studies are important given that testate amoebae serve as markers for changing climates and are abundant in threatened wetland habitats like bogs and fens. Beyond scientific discovery, this research project will train a group of undergraduate women plus a postdoctoral fellow on the biodiversity of microorganisms. Testate amoebae have been used as bioindicators in both paleoecological and contemporary studies, and some taxa are argued to be top predators in Sphagnum dominated habitats. This research project will illuminate the diversity of testate amoebae from bogs and fens within New England and across seasons. Comparison of morphological and phylogenetic species, defined initially based on two molecular markers and then by multilocus delineation through transcriptome analyses, will allow exploration of the biodiversity of this clade. The work will probe the ecological factors that drive the distribution of testate amoebae by assessing fine (local) and larger (New England) scale variation. Patterns among community members will also be characterized using high-throughput sequencing of target regions in the genome, which allows detection of rare community members. This research will generate images of testate amoebae, gene sequence data, alignments, phylogenies, and transcriptomes (i.e. expressed genes) from a poorly studied clade of eukaryotes, all of which will be made available to the community. Students and postdoctoral fellows working on this project will develop expertise in microbial diversity, microscopy, and analyses of high throughput sequencing data. Participant recruitment will aim to broaden participation from underrepresented minorities.