EAPSI: Revealing Mammalian Biodiversity with Leech Blood Meals

陆地水蛭血餐在揭示稀有和未知的哺乳动物多样性方面非常出色。研究人员通过对水蛭的血餐进行采样，确定了各种哺乳动物，包括最近发现的物种，可能受到威胁，接近威胁，以及采样区域未知的物种（尽管试图找到个体），以及需要DNA识别的神秘物种。中国庞大且不断增长的科学基础设施和专业知识使其成为建立终身合作的理想选择，同时利用这种新的血餐方法来发现神秘的生物多样性。中国云南省昆明动物研究所的Doug Yu博士将监督这个项目。云南是哺乳动物保护的一个特殊目标地点，因为它拥有中国一半的哺乳动物，中国大部分的保护物种，并且已经成为现有保护计划的主要重点。中国也以陆生水蛭的多样性和高丰度而闻名，但陆生水蛭生命树的重建在很大程度上缺乏中国样本。本项目将验证三个假设：1）血粉是调查和发现云南哺乳动物生物多样性的一种新的、有效的工具; 2）陆生水蛭具有宿主特异性;（3）云南陆栖水蛭生物多样性被严重低估。将使用基于扩增子的下一代测序技术对水蛭及其血液中的DNA进行测序。从这些序列中确定的哺乳动物宿主将与公园清单进行比较，测试这种方法在调查哺乳动物生物多样性方面的有效性。将使用统计分析检测水蛭宿主特异性。最广泛的采样陆地水蛭生命树将被构建，使用本研究和先前研究的序列，以测试当前分类的准确性。这也将有助于鉴定新物种，如最近描述的云南洞穴水蛭。NSF EAPSI奖是与中国科技部合作资助的。

Terrestrial leech blood meals are excellent at revealing rare and unknown mammal diversity. Researches have identified a variety of mammals by sampling blood meals of leeches, including species recently discovered, likely threatened, near threatened, and unknown to a sampling area (despite attempts to find individuals), as well as a cryptic species that requires DNA to identify. The substantial and growing scientific infrastructure and expertise in China make it ideal for forging life-long collaborations, while utilizing this new blood meal method to uncover cryptic biodiversity. Dr. Doug Yu at the Kunming Institute of Zoology in Yunnan Province, China will supervise this project. Yunnan is an exceptional target site for mammal conservation, as it is houses half of China's mammals, the majority of China's protected species, and is already a major focus for existing conservation programs. China is also known for an exceptional diversity and high abundance of terrestrial leeches, yet reconstructions of the terrestrial leech tree of life are largely devoid of Chinese samples.This project will test three hypotheses: 1) blood meals are a novel, efficient tool for surveying and finding mammalian biodiversity in Yunnan; 2) terrestrial leeches display host specificity; and 3) Yunnan terrestrial leech biodiversity is vastly underestimated. DNA from leeches and their blood meals will be sequenced using amplicon based next-generation sequencing. Mammal hosts determined from these sequences will be compared to park checklists, testing this method's efficacy for surveying mammalian biodiversity. Leech host specificity will be tested using statistical analyses. The most extensively sampled terrestrial leech tree of life will be constructed, using sequences from this study and prior research, to test the accuracy of current classifications. This also will aid in identification of new species like the recently described Yunnan cave leech. This NSF EAPSI award is funded in collaboration with the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology.