我国黄海和东海砂壳纤毛虫的多样性及生物地理学

海洋微型浮游动物群落的结构和功能研究始终为国际真核微生物生态学领域的热点。然而，作为重要组分的砂壳纤毛虫，国内外一直欠缺现代分类学研究，由此造成了全球多样性认知严重不足，极大地制约了纤毛虫生态学和系统学研究。同时国内有关该类动物的海湾生态学研究严重缺乏。因此，本项目将聚焦砂壳类的多样性、地理分布、个体与系统发育研究。主要内容和目标包括：1）借助经典、现代分类学手段，研究黄、东海砂壳纤毛虫的区系分类、形态和基因多样性，澄清分类混乱，建立分类图鉴和检索表；2）开展对关键科-属的细胞发生研究，建立砂壳类的个体发生模式；3）构建不明类群的DNA种库，完成SSU rDNA等基因的测序；4）整合分子与个体发育信息，完成对研究极欠缺的环毛亚纲纤毛虫的系统发育关系的重建；5）通过对代表性中小海湾中砂壳纤毛虫的群落结构、时空分布及其变化的比较研究，揭示其在中国近岸海区的生物地理分布特征及其关键影响因子。

Study on the community structure and function of marine microzooplankton has become the hot topic in the international eukaryotic microbiological ecological field for a long time. However, as one of the important components, researches on modern taxonomy of tintinnid ciliates are particularly deficient both at home and abroad, resulting in a great knowledge gap in understanding the global biodiversity of this group of organisms, which has greatly restricted the ecological and systematics research of ciliates. Meanwhile, the ecological investigation on the tintinnids in bays seriously lags in China. Therefore, this proposed project will focus on taxonomy and diversity, ecological characterization, and ontogeny as well phylogeny. Main research contents and aims include: 1) to carry out studies on fauna and taxonomy, morphospecies and genetic diversity of tintinnids in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea using classical and modern means, to clarify taxonomic confusion, to establish taxonomic classification and species identification key; 2) to perform ontogeny of some evolutionarily significant taxa and erect ontogenetic patterns of tintinnids; 3) to construct genomic DNA bank of some unknown taxa，to complete sequencing of their mark genes (e.g. SSU rDNA) and sequence data submission to GenBank; 4) to complete phylogenetic analyses and systematic reconstruction of insufficient studied subclass Choreotrichia based on molecular and ontogenetic as well morphological information; 5) to reveal biogeographical distribution characterization of tintinnids in Chinese coastal waters and key environmental factors by means of comparative study of community structure, distribution and seasonal variation of tintinnids from representative bays in different climate zones.