ATOL: Phylum Nematoda: Integrating Multidisciplinary Expertise and Infrastructure for Resolving Relationships in a Major Branch of the Tree of Life

University Of New Hampshire, Durham NH

Investigators

Abstract

A grant has been awarded to Dr. William K Thomas at the University of New Hampshire and his colleagues Dr. James Baldwin and Dr. Paul De Ley (University of California, Riverside), Dr. David Fitch (New York University) and Dr. Steven Nadler (University of California, Davis) to examine the evolutionary history and biodiversity of nematodes. The phylum Nematoda (roundworms) is argued to be one of the most abundant and genetically diverse animal phyla on earth. In addition, they play a key position in animal evolution and understanding of controversial invertebrate evolutionary relationships. Phylogenetic studies of this enormous phylum have been impeded by the difficulty of working with such diverse taxa, most of which are microscopic and known by relatively few experts. Nematode phylogenetics has also been impeded by the fragmentation of taxonomic specialists among different disciplines and by bias toward economically or medically important parasites of plants, vertebrates and invertebrates. Accordingly, understanding their evolutionary history is a critical component in the NSF's Assembling the Tree of Life program. This project will develop a higher-level tree for the nematodes to provide a framework for interpreting their diversity. The work will use both molecular (18S ribosomal genes) and morphological data for over 1000 species. In a parallel effort, they will use the results of this work as a basis for selecting 50 nematode species for construction of cDNA libraries to provide greater insight into genetic diversity in the phylum and to possibly resolve the longstanding questions about of the deepest branches of the nematode tree or even its phylogenetic position in the animal kingdom.