PEET: Revitalizing Taxonomic Expertise in Digenea for the 21st Century: The Haploporid Monographs

PEET：振兴 21 世纪 Digenea 分类学专业知识：单孔虫专着

• 批准号: 0529684
• 负责人: Robin Overstreet
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Southern Mississippi
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-09-01 至 2011-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0529684&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: PEET; Revitalizing; Taxonomic; Expertise; Digenea

Headquartered at the Parasitology Section of The Gulf Coast Research Laboratory (GCRL, The University of Southern Mississippi's Ocean Springs campus), this project establishes and strengthens an international network of over 30 parasitologists, ichthyologists, educators, curators, and students at ten universities and government organizations in seven states and ten countries. The project will preserve and revitalize taxonomic expertise in a megadiverse group of soft-bodied flatworms, flukes (Platyhelminthes: Digenea), and focuses on a family of flukes (Haploporidae) comprised of members that infect the gut of herbivorous fishes in fresh and marine waters worldwide. The project will train a minimum of three PhD students and two post-doctoral fellows to 1) monograph the four subfamilies of Haploporidae, 2) translate and globally disseminate newly-generated taxonomic expertise, and 3) recruit, educate, and inspire the next generation of digenean taxonomists. Each trainee will be a journeyman charged with actively participating in all aspects of their research and ultimately producing an exemplary, gold-standard monograph for their group. The need for such decisive actions is clear. A lineage of elder statesmen in digenean taxonomy nears extinction as professors die or retire before being replaced in their field; few can identify or properly collect and fix specimens; and young students are learning neither the craft of alpha taxonomy nor proper specimen preparation techniques. New haploporids will be collected from the under-explored regions of South America, southern Africa, Middle East, Indo-Pacific, and Australia. Morphological characteristics will be augmented by molecular data with help from the Gene Array Technology Laboratory (USM, GCRL) and Dr Vasyl Tkach (University of North Dakota, Grand Forks). The Gulf Coast Geospatial Center (USM) will generate GIS maps of collection sites. Other parasites will be routed to other taxonomic authorities; Dr George Benz (Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro)- fish copepods, Dr Delane Kritsky (University of Idaho)- select monogeneans, and Dr Leellen Solter (Illinois Natural History Survey)- select microsporans. Trainees will mentor high school interns from The Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science (Columbus) as well as those recruited from GCRL-affiliates and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). These interns will obtain research experiences in parasite taxonomy and systematics. K-8 students will touch and observe marine symbionts and parasites of coastal MS, and the public will be offered a lecture series at the Marine Education Center and Aquarium (Biloxi, MS). Country-of-origin museums, The Philadelphia Academy of Sciences, and The GCRL Museum will be enhanced by deposition of fish and invertebrate vouchers. The results will be disseminated by 1) publishing four monographs in the peer-reviewed literature, 2) presenting new discoveries at scientific meetings, 3) hosting The Digenean Systematics Workshop, 4) producing a CD-ROM, 5) launching The NSF-PEET Haploporid Taxonomy and Systematics Website at http://digenea.com/, 6) accessioning molecular sequences in GenBank and 7) indexing the website as a Global Species Database. Each activity ensures advancement of scientific knowledge within and beyond the field of parasitology while simultaneously promoting The GCRL Parasitology Unit as a focus for platyhelminth biodiversity studies and ecology.

该项目总部位于墨西哥湾沿岸研究实验室（GCRL，南密西西比大学海泉校区）寄生虫学部门，建立并加强了由来自 10 所大学和政府机构的 30 多名寄生虫学家、鱼类学家、教育工作者、策展人以及学生组成的国际网络七个州和十个国家的组织。该项目将保存和振兴软体扁虫、吸虫（扁形动物：Digenea）的巨型多样化群体的分类学专业知识，并重点关注由感染淡水和海水中草食性鱼类肠道的成员组成的吸虫科（Haploporidae）全世界。 该项目将培训至少三名博士生和两名博士后研究员，以 1) 撰写单孔虫科四个亚科的专着，2) 翻译并在全球传播新产生的分类学专业知识，3) 招募、教育和激励下一代第二纪分类学家。每位学员都将是一名熟练工，负责积极参与研究的各个方面，并最终为其团队制作一本堪称典范的黄金标准专着。采取这种果断行动的必要性是显而易见的。随着教授在各自领域的替代者去世或退休，第二纪分类学中的资深政治家世系濒临灭绝。很少有人能够识别或正确收集和固定标本；年轻的学生既没有学习阿尔法分类学的技巧，也没有学习适当的标本制备技术。新的单孔类动物将从南美洲、南部非洲、中东、印度太平洋和澳大利亚等尚未开发的地区采集。在基因阵列技术实验室（USM、GCRL）和 Vasyl Tkach 博士（北达科他大学大福克斯分校）的帮助下，分子数据将增强形态特征。墨西哥湾沿岸地理空间中心 (USM) 将生成收集地点的 GIS 地图。其他寄生虫将被送往其他分类机构； George Benz 博士（中田纳西州立大学，默弗里斯伯勒）- 鱼类桡足类，Delane Kritsky 博士（爱达荷大学）- 选择单殖类，Leellen Solter 博士（伊利诺伊州自然历史调查）- 选择小孢子类。 学员将指导密西西比数学与科学学院（哥伦布）的高中实习生以及从 GCRL 附属机构和传统黑人学院和大学 (HBCU) 招募的实习生。这些实习生将获得寄生虫分类学和系统学方面的研究经验。 K-8 学生将触摸和观察沿海 MS 的海洋共生体和寄生虫，并将在海洋教育中心和水族馆（密西西比州比洛克西）向公众提供系列讲座。原产国博物馆、费城科学院和 GCRL 博物馆将通过鱼类和无脊椎动物凭证的沉积而得到加强。结果将通过以下方式传播：1) 在同行评审文献中出版四本专着，2) 在科学会议上展示新发现，3) 主办 Digenean 系统学研讨会，4) 制作 CD-ROM，5) 启动 NSF-PEET单孔虫分类学和系统学网站 http://digenea.com/，6) 在 GenBank 中加入分子序列，7) 将网站索引为全球物种 数据库。每项活动都确保寄生虫学领域内外科学知识的进步，同时促进 GCRL 寄生虫学单位成为扁形动物生物多样性研究和生态学的重点。