Collaborative Research: ASSESSING THE SYSTEMATICS AND DIVERSITY OF HAEMOSPORIDA IN AFRICAN LIZARDS

合作研究：评估非洲蜥蜴血孢子虫的系统性和多样性

• 批准号: 2146653
• 负责人: Ananias Escalante
• 金额: $ 59.25万
• 依托单位: Temple University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-06-01 至 2025-05-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2146653&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; ASSESSING; SYSTEMATICS; DIVERSITY

Studying the diversity of symbionts offers a unique window to observe ecological and evolutionary dynamics between interdependent organisms. Further, like a canary in a coal mine, host switching by symbionts may reveal emerging risk factors leading to infectious diseases in hosts. On the other hand, extinction of symbionts inform can inform us about the impacts of environmental change. Information on symbionts diversity is limited, however, since they are relatively understudied organisms. This project investigates lizards and their haemosporidian symbionts in sub-Saharan Africa. Haemosporida is a diverse group of vector-borne protozoan symbionts found in terrestrial vertebrates in almost all world ecosystems. Although some species have been studied because of their link to malaria in birds and humans, haemosporidian symbionts in African lizards are poorly known. This project provides training opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students. Local assemblages of African lizards include sets of taxa differing in degree of ecological and phylogenetic distinctiveness. Unlike birds, lizards do not disperse broadly, and local assemblages are less diverse. These characteristics reduce bias in host species censuses, allowing us to test hypotheses about the factors driving host/symbiont biodiversity. Thus, this study aims to (1) advance our understanding of Haemosporida species delimitation by formalizing an approach that integrates morphological, molecular, and ecological data, (2) generate new knowledge on the processes driving haemosporidian species diversity by studying newly detected Haemosporida species in host clades across their distribution in distinct biomes, (3) enrich biodiversity sciences by developing standards for symbiont-host data integration, and (4) generate knowledge on the regional herpetofauna with new specimens and metadata. This study will provide new insights into regional evolutionary and ecological processes by considering Haemosporida as true elements of biodiversity rather than as traits or pathogens of their hosts.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

研究共生体的多样性提供了一个独特的窗口，可以观察相互依存的生物之间的生态和进化动态。此外，像煤矿中的金丝雀一样，共生体的宿主转换可能会揭示出新的危险因素，从而导致宿主传染病。另一方面，灭绝共生体信息可以告知我们环境变化的影响。但是，关于共生体多样性的信息是有限的，因为它们是相对研究的生物。该项目调查了撒哈拉以南非洲的蜥蜴及其肺泡的共生体。 Haemosporida是在几乎所有世界生态系统中的陆生脊椎动物中发现的一组媒介传播的原生动物共生体。尽管某些物种与鸟类和人类的疟疾有联系，但非洲蜥蜴中的造孢子虫共生体是众所周知的。该项目为研究生和本科生提供了培训机会。非洲蜥蜴的局部组合包括一组生态学和系统发育独特性程度不同的分类单元。与鸟类不同，蜥蜴并不能广泛散布，而本地组合的多样性较小。这些特征减少了宿主物种普查的偏见，使我们能够检验有关驱动宿主/共生生物多样性的因素的假设。因此，这项研究的目的是（1）通过形式化一种整合形态学，分子和生态数据的方法来提高我们对出血性物种界定的理解，（2）通过研究促进出血性物种多样性的过程来产生新的知识，通过研究新发现的宿主分布中的宿主分布中的宿主分布，通过不同的生物群体（3）富含生物群的分布，（3）的宿主分布，（3） （4）用新标本和元数据对区域疱疹群岛产生知识。这项研究将通过将haemosporida视为生物多样性的真实要素，而不是作为其宿主的特征或病原体，从而为区域进化和生态过程提供新的见解。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的智力和更广泛影响的评估来通过评估来支持的，这是值得的。