Protist Workshop 2008

In the last decade, advances in a variety of fields ranging from molecular biology and genomics, to statistics and phylogenetic reconstruction methods, to environmental surveys and the description of new species, have in combination led to a significant improvement of our understanding of protist diversity and evolution. To recognize these advances, and to establish a flexible resource to concentrate and distribute our knowledge about the biology and diversity of microbial eukaryotes in the context of the phylogenetic relationships among protists, a group of protistologists began to organize a massive update of the “protist” sections of the Tree of Life Web Project.

The goal was to achieve this in a single, substantial push in the summer of 2008, facilitated by a workshop. Members of the protist research community were chosen to update various branches of the Tree of Life Web Project, and contributors gathered in Halifax on the eve of the combined meeting of the International Society for Evolutionary Protistology and International Society of Protistologists, and presented an overview of each group. The workshop served as the focal point for the individual efforts to update the Tree of Life, but also presented a unique opportunity for a ‘crash course’ in eukaryotic biodiversity of a type never offered before. Experts of all major protozoan and algal groups were on hand and presented their summary of the basic biology, structure, molecular biology, and phylogenetics of their group. For anyone interested in brushing up on the state-of-the-art-outside the groups they know best, or for people relatively new to the field and wanting a ‘protist-emersion’ experience, this workshop offered a unique opportunity. The topics the contributors were asked to cover were not restricted to the systematics and phylogeny of a group; speakers were encouraged to provide a more comprehensive summary about the biology of each group and what makes them interesting.

Several of the branch pages developed in the context of these efforts are now available on the Tree of Life Web Project and additional pages will be published over the next few years. Here is an overview of the workshop presentations with links to those pages that have already been published.

	Introduction to the Tree of Web Project David Maddison, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA About the Tree of Life Web Project
	Background and the Tree of Eukaryotes Patrick Keeling, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Eukaryotes
	Microsporidia Jiri Vavra, University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
	Amoebozoa Jeff Silberman, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA
	Lobosea Alexey Smirnov, St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia
	Slime Molds (Eumycetozoa) Fred Spiegel, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA
	Testate Amoebozoa (Arcellinida) Ralf Meisterfeld, Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen, Germany Arcellinida
	Introduction to Excavates, Jacobids Alastair Simpson, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada Jakobida
	Euglenids Brian Leander, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Euglenida
	Kinetoplastids Julius Lukes, University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic Kinetoplastida
	Parabasalia Patrick Keeling, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Kevin Carpenter, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
	Oxymonads Kevin Carpenter, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Vladimir Hampl, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada Patrick Keeling, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
	Fornicata (Diplomonads and Retortamonads) Ivan Cepicka, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic Fornicata
	Haptophytes Colomban de Vargas, Station Biologique de Roscoff, Roscoff, France
	Cryptophytes (Cryptomonads) John Archibald, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada Kerstin Hoef-Emden, Universität zu Köln, Köln, Germany Cryptomonads
	The Heterokont Algae: Class Eustigmatophyceae J. Craig Bailey, Cory Dashiell, Lindsay Haus, University of North Carolina Wilmington, North Carolina, USA
	The Brown Algae (Phaeophyceae) Chris Lane, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
	Oomycetes Gordon Beakes, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
	Diatoms David Mann, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, United Kingdom
	Ciliates Michaela Strueder-Kypke, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada
	Dinoflagellates Mona Hoppenrath, Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg, German Centre for Marine Biodiversity Research, Wilhemshaven, Germany Juan Saldarriaga, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Dinoflagellates
	Gregarines Sonja Rueckert, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Brian Leander, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Gregarina
	Apicomplexa Jan Slapeta, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
	Rhizaria and Cercozoa Tom Cavalier-Smith, Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom Cercozoa
	Testate Cercozoan Amoebae Edward Mitchell, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland
	Chlorarachniophytes Ken-ichiro Ishida, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan Chlorarachniophytes
	Cryomonads, Thaumatomonads & relatives Chitchai Chantangsi, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Brian Leander, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
	Foraminifera Jan Pawlowski, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
	General Discussion–Next Steps

Here are some other pages that were developed as a result of the workshop but that were not covered in the workshop: Alveolates, Heterolobosea, Stephanopogon.