GoLife: Collaborative Research: Integrative Genealogy, Ecology and Phenomics of Deltocephaline Leafhoppers (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae), and their Microbial Associates

尽管昆虫具有巨大的生态和经济重要性，但大多数物种仅从少数博物馆标本中了解，很少有关于其行为或生态关联的数据。大多数昆虫也属于大型谱系，由于其极端的多样性，分类学专业知识的缺乏以及难以获得适合详细遗传研究的标本，因此难以进行全面研究。该项目将为一个这样的昆虫谱系整合多个数据层，即植物汁液吸食叶蝉亚科Deltocephalinae，包括6，600个物种，包括许多农业害虫，入侵物种和保护物种。产品将包括一套全面和开放的数字化工具，用于识别叶蝉物种和更高的群体，一个显示这些群体之间关系的系统发生学，以及一个组织每个物种信息的在线数据库，包括地理和季节分布，解剖特征，基因组信息以及与植物和微生物的关系。这些数据将有助于识别和跟踪入侵物种，并有助于提高对全世界叶蝉生物多样性的认识。它们还将有助于确定与叶蝉物种传播植物疾病病原体的能力有关的遗传特征，从而加强对农业和粮食安全威胁的预测和管理。 它还将创建一个在线数字研究平台，结合以前文献和数字化收藏的命名，形态，生态和分布数据，为叶蝉创建一套全面的识别工具和图解分类页面。 它还将建立一个基因组库，并使用高效的下一代DNA测序技术来捕获遗传数据，这些数据提供了系统发育关系、微生物协会（包括内共生体和植物病原体）和生态特征（饮食广度和宿主植物协会）的信息。 它将为学生和已建立的分类学家提供强化培训，以促进全球合作努力，充分记录叶蝉及其植物和微生物的生物多样性。 最后，该项目将提供强大的网络基础设施和模型工作流程，以支持对其他不同生物群体的研究。

Despite the enormous ecological and economic importance of insects, the majority of species are known only from a few museum specimens with little data on their behavior or ecological associations. Most insects also belong to large lineages that are difficult to study comprehensively because of their extreme diversity, the shortage of taxonomic expertise, and the difficulty of obtaining specimens suitable for detailed genetic study. This project will integrate multiple data layers for one such insect lineage, the plant-sap-sucking leafhopper subfamily Deltocephalinae, comprising 6,600 species and including many agricultural pests, invasive species, and species of conservation concern. Products will include a comprehensive and open-access set of digital tools for identifying leafhopper species and higher groups, a phylogeny showing the relationships among these groups, and an online database that organizes information on each species including geographic and seasonal distribution, anatomical traits, genomic information and associations with plants and microbes. These data will help facilitate identification and tracking of invasive species and contribute to improved knowledge of leafhopper biodiversity worldwide. They also will help identify genetic traits associated with the ability of leafhopper species to transmit plant disease pathogens, thereby enhancing prediction and management of threats to agriculture and food security.This project will construct an open-access phylogeny for the leafhopper subfamily Deltocephalinae. It also will create an online digital research platform that combines nomenclatural, morphological, ecological and distributional data from the previous literature and digitized collections to create a comprehensive set of identification tools and illustrated taxon pages for the leafhoppers. It also will establish a genome bank and use efficient next-generation DNA sequencing technology to capture genetic data informative of phylogenetic relationships, microbial associations (including endosymbionts and plant pathogens), and ecological traits (diet breadth and host-plant associations). It will provide intensive training for both students and established taxonomists to facilitate a global collaborative effort to fully document the biodiversity of leafhoppers and their plant and microbial associates. Finally, the project will provide a robust cyberinfrastructure and model workflows to support research on other diverse groups of organisms.