我国黄海远岸水体中纤毛虫原生动物的多样性、时空分布及生物地理学资料的构建

The ciliated protozoa is a large group of widespread and highly diverse organisms, which is widely studied by researchers focusing on aquatic ecology, biodiversity, and environmental biology and so on. Moreover, as an important component of marine microplankton, the ciliate protozoa plays a key role in the microbial food web and have an important function in environmental monitoring. So far, the research on the ciliates of the Yellow and Bohai Seas in China has been carried out mainly in the nearshore and intertidal zone. And biodiversity and distribution of ciliates in far offshore sea area are not well known, which limits the progress of the related studies such as their ecological function and zoogeography. Therefore, in proposed project, ciliated protozoa will be periodically and broadly collected from a variety of habitats of far offshore area of the Yellow Sea. Based on the samples obtained, we plan to study the morphological and genetic diversity and community structure dynamics by the modern morphological methods, high throughput and multigene sequencing and multivariate analyses. And at the same time, all kinds of information will be integrated, including morphology/morphogenesis/molecular marker data, to reveal the evolution between different groups of their progenitor syndrome and synapomorphy, solve the controversial issues and reconstruct the phylogenetic evolution line of related taxa. The present investigation, it will clarify the specific composition of ciliates; establish the reference service system in the long term changes in biodiversity and monitoring; provide essential reference and data support for the ecological restoration and environmental changes of the far shore biological environment; as a historical archives and coordinate work, the construct the professional reference and information for the biogeography of the northern sea area.

纤毛虫原生动物在水体微食物网中具有举足轻重的环境生物学与生态学功能和意义。我国迄今围绕黄渤海区的研究几乎全部是在近岸-潮间带开展的，而对远岸水体的研究基本为空白。本研究拟聚焦在黄海远岸海域，结合经典（分类、自然生态学）及现代技术（宏基因组高通量、多元分析等手段），以形态分类、多样性与时空分布、群落结构与系统学为主干并着手构建形态学、多样性及多重分子标记信息，目的在于：（1）进一步完善和补充我国原生动物研究版图及温带海区纤毛虫区系构成、资源多样性等家底性资料，（2）为深入研究该类生物在远岸环境中的生态学地位、功能、环境监测与保护、养殖生态与修复等相关领域提供国内急需、第一手的基础性数据，（3）该工作同时还具有显著的历史意义：将作为一份历史性档案资料和坐标性工作，启动和构建服务于该水域中环境变迁的参照体系，为该我国北方海区未来的生物地理学研究构建专业级的参考依据和信息。

纤毛虫原生动物是海洋微型动物群落的重要组成部分。根据研究计划，本项目在4年里，对黄海远岸部分典型生境（远岸养殖区，渔场，开放水体等）的纤毛虫原生动物进行了广泛采集，主要对以下四方面内容进行了研究：1）完成了对87个物种/种群的形态鉴定和描述工作，包括采集、分离、培养、DNA 建库以及分类和系统学相关工作，完善了原生动物研究的版图和我国温带海区原生动物区系研究的构成资料；2）在准确物种鉴定的基础上，同步建立细胞活体培养和DNA冻存资源体系，丰富了国际DNA 分子素材库，也完善了纤毛虫细胞库与基因库平台；3）基于组学信息或多基因信息，结合所同步开展的形态学，对缘毛亚纲、寡膜纲及旋唇纲排毛目等内部系统关系混乱的高级阶元进行综合性系统关系梳理和探讨，不仅部分地填补了系统演化事件中的空缺类群，同时也为相关领域分子的深入研究提供一份材料积累。4）综合详实的形态学及分子生物学数据，分析了寡毛亚纲急游虫科和管口亚纲纤毛虫的多样性与生物地理分布，为进一步深入了解其在全球尺度上生态功能提供了基础。以上成果在国际主流刊物（SCI-收录刊物）发表研究论文17 篇，另有1篇在审稿中，1篇整理中。以本项目为依托，课题组培养了6名硕士（4名在读），为后续研究的开展奠定了人才基础。资助21人次参加了8 次国际/国内学术会议，并做口头／墙报报告；12人次参加与国内其他高水平实验室合作、学习与交流。