Cataloguing Diversity of Ciliated Protists Through the Synergy of Morphological and Genetic Approaches

美国东北大学的Slava Epstein博士获得了一笔拨款，用于对东北大西洋沿岸自由生活的毛虫进行高分辨率识别和盘点。目标生物包括纤毛虫门，是海洋中最重要的微生物之一。从遗传学上讲，这一门可能比整个动物王国更加多样化，然而，纤毛虫的物种多样性目前甚至无法以一个数量级的准确性进行评估。这反映了传统的纤毛虫（和其他原生生物）鉴定和编目的形态学方法不足以描述其生物多样性的事实。本研究将传统形态学和比较基因组学整合为一种协同方法。这将使以标本、DNA、特定基因序列的收集以及基于互联网的可搜索数据库的形式创建一个创新的海洋纤毛虫目录成为可能。该数据库将包括丰富的口头和图像形态学信息，包括静态、三维和视频图像、遗传多样性数据，所有这些都与早期数据交叉引用。目前还没有这种数据库。传统形态学与现代分子学手段在生物多样性研究中的结合是原生动物学领域的一个重要发展。从最直接的意义上讲，它将极大地促进系统分类学、种群生物学、生态学、生理学、生物化学和进化等研究的目标纤毛虫的鉴定和分类。更广泛地说，这个纤毛虫的综合目录将成为记录我们星球上整体生命多样性过程的一个组成部分。

DEB-0103599Slava EpsteinA grant has been awarded to Dr. Slava Epstein at Northeastern University to conduct a high-resolution identification and inventory of the free-living ciliates along Northeast Atlantic coast. The target organisms comprise the Phylum Ciliophora and are among the most important microorganisms in the ocean. Genetically, this phylum is likely to be more diverse than the whole animal kingdom, yet the species diversity of ciliates cannot be presently assessed even with an order of magnitude accuracy. This is a reflection of the fact that traditional morphological methods of ciliate (and other protists) identification and cataloguing are not sufficient to describe their biodiversity. This study will integrate traditional morphology and comparative genomics into one synergistic approach. This will enable creation of an innovative catalogue of marine ciliates in the form of collection of specimens, their DNA, specific gene sequences, as well as an Internet-based searchable database. This database will include rich verbal and pictorial morphological information, including still-, 3-D-, and video images, data on genetic diversity, all cross-referenced to the earlier data. No database of this kind is available today. The marriage between traditional morphological and modern molecular tools in studying biological diversity is an important development in the area of protozoology. In the most immediate sense, it will greatly facilitate identification and classification of the ciliates that are targeted by research in systematics, population biology, ecology, physiology, biochemistry, and evolution. More generally, this comprehensive catalogue of the ciliates will become an integral part of the process of documenting the overall diversity of life on our planet.