Lecanomics: New ways of species detection and recognition in a ubiquitous group of lichens

(1)地衣是陆地生态系统中一个不起眼但却十分重要的组成部分，但其多样性目前尚不清楚。世界上许多地区的勘探程度很低，物种划分往往不清楚。更好地了解地衣多样性的最大障碍是缺乏基因组工具，只有少数人可以在野外发现微地衣。新的数据库或测序计划本身不太可能加速地衣中的物种识别。(2)相反，有必要更好地连接分类学工作流程的两端：实地探索和通过基因组方法验证潜在的新物种。基于来自无菌地衣培养物的参考基因组，我们希望开发用于物种鉴定和划界的基因组和遗传标记，这些标记将在来自世界上未被探索的地区的大样本上进行测试。一个国际专家小组（区域中心）将组织世界范围的取样和向收集者提供反馈。我们的项目将使用一个成熟的开源IT解决方案，通过创建一个由收集者，分类学家，实验室工作人员和遗传学家组成的合作工作组的工作流程管理平台，将综合分类学与人群科学相结合。从这个项目的见解将有助于简化分类的工作流程，也为其他不显眼的生物。 (3)在所有陆地生态系统中描述了近1000种的壳状地衣属Lecanora将是我们研究的模式。在过去的50年里，有250多个物种被新描述。在欧洲和北美以外，很少有专家能够检测和识别物种，对新物种的描述大多没有分子数据的支持。

(1) Lichens are an inconspicuous but important component of terrestrial ecosystems, but their diversity is not nearly known at present. Many regions of the world are poorly explored and species delimitations are often unclear. The biggest impediment to a better account of lichen diversity is the lack of access to genomic tools for the few people that can spot microlichens in the field. New databases or sequencing initiatives alone are unlikely to accelerate species recognition in lichens.(2) Instead, it is necessary to better connect both ends of the taxonomic work-flow: field exploration and verification of potential new species by genomic methods. Based on reference genomes from axenic lichen cultures, we want to develop genomic and genetic markers for species identification and delimitation that will be tested on large samples from underexplored regions of the world. Worldwide sampling and feedback to collectors will be organized by an international team of specialists (regional hubs). Our project will use an established open-source IT solution to merge integrative taxonomy with crowd science by creating a platform for work-flow management in cooperative working groups consisting of collectors, taxonomists, lab staff and phylogeneticists. Insights from this project will help to streamline the taxonomic work-flow also for other inconspicuous organisms. (3) The crustose lichen genus Lecanora with nearly 1000 described species in all terrestrial ecosystems will be the model for our study. More than 250 species have been newly described over the last 50 years. Outside Europe and North America, very few specialists are able to detect and identify species and descriptions of new species are still mostly not backed by molecular data.