Collaborative Research: ASSESSING THE SYSTEMATICS AND DIVERSITY OF HAEMOSPORIDA IN AFRICAN LIZARDS

合作研究：评估非洲蜥蜴血孢子虫的系统性和多样性

• 批准号: 2146653
• 负责人: Ananias Escalante
• 金额: $ 59.25万
• 依托单位: Temple University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-06-01 至 2025-05-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2146653&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; ASSESSING; SYSTEMATICS; DIVERSITY

Studying the diversity of symbionts offers a unique window to observe ecological and evolutionary dynamics between interdependent organisms. Further, like a canary in a coal mine, host switching by symbionts may reveal emerging risk factors leading to infectious diseases in hosts. On the other hand, extinction of symbionts inform can inform us about the impacts of environmental change. Information on symbionts diversity is limited, however, since they are relatively understudied organisms. This project investigates lizards and their haemosporidian symbionts in sub-Saharan Africa. Haemosporida is a diverse group of vector-borne protozoan symbionts found in terrestrial vertebrates in almost all world ecosystems. Although some species have been studied because of their link to malaria in birds and humans, haemosporidian symbionts in African lizards are poorly known. This project provides training opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students. Local assemblages of African lizards include sets of taxa differing in degree of ecological and phylogenetic distinctiveness. Unlike birds, lizards do not disperse broadly, and local assemblages are less diverse. These characteristics reduce bias in host species censuses, allowing us to test hypotheses about the factors driving host/symbiont biodiversity. Thus, this study aims to (1) advance our understanding of Haemosporida species delimitation by formalizing an approach that integrates morphological, molecular, and ecological data, (2) generate new knowledge on the processes driving haemosporidian species diversity by studying newly detected Haemosporida species in host clades across their distribution in distinct biomes, (3) enrich biodiversity sciences by developing standards for symbiont-host data integration, and (4) generate knowledge on the regional herpetofauna with new specimens and metadata. This study will provide new insights into regional evolutionary and ecological processes by considering Haemosporida as true elements of biodiversity rather than as traits or pathogens of their hosts.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.

研究共生体的多样性为观察相互依存的生物体之间的生态和进化动态提供了一个独特的窗口。此外，就像煤矿里的金丝雀一样，共生体的宿主转换可能会揭示导致宿主感染性疾病的新风险因素。另一方面，共生体的灭绝可以让我们了解环境变化的影响。然而，有关共生体多样性的信息有限，因为它们是相对未被充分研究的生物体。该项目调查撒哈拉以南非洲地区的蜥蜴及其血孢子共生体。血孢子虫是在几乎所有世界生态系统的陆生脊椎动物中发现的一组多样化的媒介传播的原生动物共生体。尽管一些物种因其与鸟类和人类疟疾的联系而受到研究，但非洲蜥蜴中的血孢子共生体却鲜为人知。该项目为研究生和本科生提供培训机会。非洲蜥蜴的本地组合包括生态和系统发育独特性程度不同的分类群。与鸟类不同，蜥蜴的分布范围并不广，而且当地的物种多样性也较少。这些特征减少了宿主物种普查中的偏差，使我们能够检验有关驱动宿主/共生生物多样性的因素的假设。因此，本研究的目的是（1）通过形式化整合形态学、分子和生态数据的方法来增进我们对血孢子虫物种界定的理解，（2）通过研究不同生物群落中宿主进化枝中新发现的血孢子虫物种的分布，产生关于驱动血孢子虫物种多样性的过程的新知识，（3）通过制定共生体-宿主数据整合的标准来丰富生物多样性科学， (4) 利用新标本和元数据生成有关区域爬行动物的知识。这项研究将血孢子虫视为生物多样性的真正要素，而不是其宿主的特征或病原体，从而为区域进化和生态过程提供新的见解。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。