PEET: Monographic and Phylogenetic Research on the Saprolegniales (watermolds)

由于多种原因，属于水霉目（水霉菌）的丝状微生物在环境和经济上是重要的，但是对这些重要生物体的研究已经被阻碍了200多年，因为它们的鉴定极其困难。 这一事实可能比任何其他事实都更模糊了人们的理解，不仅是如何控制那些造成毁灭性动植物疾病的物种，而且还有其他物种提供的重大环境效益。 水霉菌鉴定（其系统生物学的一个组成部分）历史上一直很困难，因为用于表征它们的形态特征在物种之间重叠，以至于一个物种通常无法与其近邻区分开来。 然而，现在人们认识到，现代DNA技术和基因测序技术提供了一个急需的工具，有助于解决物种之间的界限，从而实现准确和快速的识别。在这个伙伴关系的研究计划增强专业知识在分类学（PEET）项目将采用基因测序技术，以更精确地定义水霉菌物种之间的界限，并在这样做将修改这一组的系统分类，使环境和经济调查的水霉菌将变得更加容易。 这项研究的所有成果都将在万维网上向世界科学界免费公开。由于鉴定水霉的极端困难，年轻的科学家们避免了对它们的研究，因此现在世界范围内严重缺乏水霉系统学家。 当前项目的一个主要目标是开始使用现代技术培训下一代的水模系统学家，这不仅将澄清水模系统学，而且还将为回答重要的“应用”问题提供基础，这些问题对社会和环境的意义。 研究人员与位于威尔明顿的北卡罗来纳州大学科学与数学教育中心合作，在北卡罗来纳州东南部的公立学校开展教育推广计划，以更好地告知公众这一群体的重要性，并鼓励学龄儿童不仅理解水霉菌的重要性，美丽和兴奋，而且也是一般的科学。

Filamentous microbes belonging to the order Saprolegniales (watermolds) are important environmentally and economically for a great variety of reasons, but the study of these important organisms has been hampered for over 200 years because of the extreme difficulty involved in their identification. This fact probably more than any other has obscured understanding not only of how to control those species that cause devastating plant and animal diseases, but also of the significant environmental benefit that still other species provide. Watermold identification (a component of their systematic biology) historically has been difficult because morphological features used to characterize them overlap significantly between species to the extent that one speciesusually cannot be distinguished from its close neighbors. It is now recognized, however, that modern DNA technology and gene sequencing techniques offers a much-needed tool for helping to resolve the boundaries between species thus enabling accurate and fast identification. The research program in this Partnership for Enhancing Expertise in Taxonomy (PEET) project will employ gene sequencing techniques to define the boundaries between watermold species more precisely and in so doing will revise the systematics of this group such that environmental and economic investigations of watermolds will be made much easier. All products of this research will be freely and openly accessible to the world scientific community on the world-wide-web. Owing to the extreme difficulty of identifying watermolds, young scientists have avoided investigating them, such that there now is a worldwide critical shortage of watermold systematists. A principal objective of the current project is to begin the training of the next generation of watermold systematists using modern techniques that not only will clarify watermold systematics, but also will provide the foundation for answering important "applied" questions about their significance to society and the environment. The investigators have partnered with the Science and Mathematics Education Center of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington to develop an educational outreach program to public schools in southeastern North Carolina tobetter inform the public of the importance of this group and to encourage school-age children to understand the significance, beauty, and excitement not only of watermolds, but also of science in general.