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Tree of Life Web Project Protist Diversity Workshop July 2008

Patrick Keeling, Brian S. Leander, Alastair Simpson, David R. Maddison, and Katja Schulz

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

Background and the Tree of Eukaryotes

Patrick Keeling, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

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

Introduction to Excavates, Jacobids

Alastair Simpson, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Euglenids

Brian Leander, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Kinetoplastids

Julius Lukes, University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic

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

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

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

Gregarines

Sonja Rueckert, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Brian Leander, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Apicomplexa

Jan Slapeta, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Rhizaria and Cercozoa

Tom Cavalier-Smith, Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom

Testate Cercozoan Amoebae

Edward Mitchell, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland

Chlorarachniophytes

Ken-ichiro Ishida, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan

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.

Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window

Participants in the Tree of Life Web Project Protist Diversity Workshop, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, 19-20 July 2008. © 2008

About This Page

The Tree of Life Web Project Protist Diversity Workshop, held in Halifax on 19-20 July 2008, was co-sponsored by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) program in Integrated Microbial Biodiversity, and the Tula Foundation. Thanks to their generous support, all costs for invited speakers were provided by the workshop organizers. In addition, this support allowed us to open the workshop to registration by anyone wishing to attend, and partially covered the costs of all registrants.

Patrick Keeling
The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Brian S. Leander
The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Alastair Simpson
Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

David R. Maddison
Oregon State University


Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC, USA

Correspondence regarding this page should be directed to Patrick Keeling at , Brian S. Leander at , Alastair Simpson at , David R. Maddison at , and Katja Schulz at

Page: Tree of Life Tree of Life Web Project Protist Diversity Workshop July 2008 Authored by Patrick Keeling, Brian S. Leander, Alastair Simpson, David R. Maddison, and Katja Schulz. The TEXT of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License - Version 3.0. Note that images and other media featured on this page are each governed by their own license, and they may or may not be available for reuse. Click on an image or a media link to access the media data window, which provides the relevant licensing information. For the general terms and conditions of ToL material reuse and redistribution, please see the Tree of Life Copyright Policies.

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