CAREER: Revolutionizing Biodiversity and Systematics Research on Aplacophora (Mollusca) and Training the Next Generation of Invertebrate Systematists

无壳类是一类形似蠕虫的无壳海洋软体动物。虽然它们在潮间带深处并不常见(因此甚至对许多动物学家来说也是陌生的)，但无尾轮虫是深海群落中数量丰富且具有重要生态意义的成员。大约有400个物种已经被命名，但据估计还有十倍的物种有待发现。进化生物学家对无足纲动物很感兴趣，因为无足纲动物和石鳖是所有其他软体动物的姊妹类群，软体动物是物种第二丰富的动物门，展示了动物界中一些最截然不同的身体结构。不幸的是，近年来，随着三位世界专家的逝世，在这个已经被忽视的群体中工作的分类学家的数量大幅下降。该项目将通过培训新一代科学家，重振美国的胎盘动物生物多样性和系统学研究，并回答有关这些未被研究的动物的生物多样性和进化的基本问题。将举办三个分类学培训讲习班，每个讲习班为10-15名职业生涯早期的无脊椎动物系统学家提供培训，同时收集本研究所需的标本。此外，少年派和他的实验室将在阿拉巴马州的中学发表演讲，并在阿拉巴马州自然历史博物馆发展博物馆展览。综上所述，这项工作将提供有关地球上生命多样性的基本信息，这对保护、生态学和进化生物学领域至关重要。该项目的目标是使用传统和尖端方法相结合的方法来革命性地研究无脊椎动物的生物多样性和分类学，同时培训下一代无脊椎动物系统学家关于不同的分类群和技术。PI和他的实验室将识别数千个标本，描述50个新物种，描述特别多样化和研究不足的地区的动物群，为选择需要修改的分类群撰写专著，并开发DNA条形码库，以帮助未来的非专家。标本鉴定将采用一种新的工作流程，将光学显微镜、微型CT、扫描电子显微镜和DNA条形码结合在一起--所有这些都来自同一个标本。此外，将对第一批顶盖动物基因组进行测序，使目标捕获系统基因组学能够从广泛覆盖该群体多样性的物种中采样数百个分子标记。利用这些数据，我们将推断出拟步甲目动物的系统发育，从而有可能得到一个能准确反映该类群的修订分类--S的进化史，以及作为一个整体对拟步甲目、甲壳类和软体动物关键性状的祖先状态重建。该项目由环境生物学分部(系统与生物多样性科学群)和极地计划办公室共同支持。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Aplacophora is a diverse group of shell-less, worm-shaped marine molluscs. Although they are not common at intertidal depths (and are thus unfamiliar even to many zoologists), aplacophorans are abundant and ecologically important members of deep-sea communities. Around 400 species have been named, but it is estimated that tenfold more are awaiting discovery. Aplacophorans are of interest to evolutionary biologists because aplacophorans along with chitons form the sister group to all other Mollusca, which is the second most species-rich animal phylum and exhibits some of the most dramatically disparate body plans in the animal kingdom. Unfortunately, in recent years, the number of taxonomists working on this already understudied group has dropped significantly as three of the world experts have passed away. This project will resurrect aplacophoran biodiversity and systematics research in the United States through training of a new generation of scientists and answer fundamental questions about the biodiversity and evolution of these understudied animals. Three taxonomy training workshops will be held with each providing training for 10-15 early-career invertebrate systematists in conjunction with collection of specimens needed for this research. Further, the PI and his lab will speak in Alabama middle schools and develop a museum exhibit at the Alabama Museum of Natural History. Taken together, this work will provide fundamental information on the diversity of life on Earth, which is essential to the fields of conservation, ecology, and evolutionary biology.The goal of this project is to revolutionize the study of aplacophoran biodiversity and systematics using a combination of traditional and cutting-edge approaches while training the next generation of invertebrate systematists on diverse taxa and techniques. The PI and his lab will identify thousands of specimens, describe 50 new species, characterize the faunas of particularly diverse and understudied regions, write monographs for select taxa in need of revision, and develop a DNA barcode library to help future non-experts. Specimen identification will employ a novel workflow combining light microscopy, micro-CT, scanning electron microscopy, and DNA barcoding - all from the same specimen. Further, the first aplacophoran genomes will be sequenced, enabling target-capture phylogenomics to sample hundreds of molecular markers from species broadly spanning the diversity of the group. Using these data, aplacophoran phylogeny will be inferred, making possible a revised classification that accurately reflects the group?s evolutionary history as well as ancestral state reconstruction of key traits for Aplacophora, Aculifera (aplacophorans + chitons), and Mollusca as a whole.This project is jointly supported between the Division of Environmental Biology (Systematics and Biodiversity Sciences Cluster) and the Office of Polar Programs.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.