Analyzing rainforest ciliate diversity in Panama and Ecuador using nascent sequencing technologies and qRT-PCR.

众所周知，新热带森林中的动植物物种群落高度多样化，由于地方性程度的不同，群落之间的物种组成可能会发生巨大变化。这里的目的是测试在同一森林的微生物层面上是否存在类似的生物多样性和生物地理模式。巴拿马和厄瓜多尔的土壤纤毛虫将被用作模型，并将使用新生的测序和扩增技术从多个方面进行检查。1)超过四年的RNA深度测序将允许观察总的多样性，以及随着距离和时间的任何变化。2)将测量土壤纤毛虫中RNA的表达水平，以评估使用来自新热带土壤的RNA序列来估计丰度的适宜性。3)将在假定无性的蜈蚣纤毛虫中登记性别连锁基因，以评估它们的尼泊尔热带土壤序列是否应该与其他有性微生物和大型有机体真核生物物种或细菌和古生菌的无性菌株进行最佳比较。将这三个方面结合起来观察土壤纤毛虫并解释它们的序列将有助于建立一个微生物视角，这将拓宽我们对濒危新热带森林的看法。

Communities of animal and plant species in Neotropical forests are known to be hyper-diverse, and species composition can change dramatically among communities because of varying levels of endemism. The aim here is to test if similar patterns of biodiversity and biogeography occur at the microbial level in the same forests. Soil ciliates in Panama and Ecuador will be used as models, and will be examined from multiple aspects using nascent sequencing and amplification technologies. 1) Deep sequencing of RNA over four years will allow for observations of total diversity, as well as any changes over distance and time. 2) Expression levels of RNA will be measured in soil ciliates to evaluate the appropriateness of using the RNA sequences from the Neotropical soils to estimate abundances. 3) Sexlinked genes will be inventoried in the putatively asexual colpodean ciliates to evaluate if their Neptropical soil sequences should be best compared to other sexual microbial and macro-organismic eukaryotic species, or to asexual strains of bacteria and archaea. Together these three aspects to observing soil ciliates and interpreting their sequences will help in establishing a microbial perspective that will broaden our view of the endangered Neotropical forests.