NGTax
Taxonomy – from the Greek τάξις (táxis, “arrangement”) and νόμος (nómos, “law”) - the science of defining and naming groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics - faced a significant crisis in the last decades and nowadays a rejuvenation of this discipline is required.
For this reason, we have recently proposed the integration in taxonomy of the most advanced genomics and bioinformatics techniques, taking into account also the holobiont concept (Serra et al., 2019): we named this approach Next Generation Taxonomy.
NGTax will explore and expand this rationale, establishing an international network of organisations across three continents. The consortium will work on a joint research programme on the Next Generation Taxonomy of ciliates and their symbionts, which constitute a holobiontic unit. The proposed approach is strongly multidisciplinary, including classical morphological analyses, ultrastructure, molecular tools, genomics and bioinformatics.
Our Mission: Advancing Taxonomy and Biodiversity Research
NGTax will pursue following central objectives:
- validate the NGTax approach
- contribute to rejuvenating the taxonomic discipline
- consolidate and disseminate the NGTax approach
- train researches in the NGTax approach
Our organisms
Ciliates are unicellular organisms occurring in natural and artificial humid ecosystems. They are worldwide distributed and
important model organisms for many biological fields.
Next to Ciliates we will characterize - if present – the symbionts of Ciliates. Some Ciliates occur as symbionts associated with a wide variety of multicellular hosts, ranging from sponges to vertebrates. Examples for our good-looking models can be found in the slideshow below.
Our methods
We apply traditional and modern techniques for morphological analyses, ultrastructure, phylogenetics, phylogenomics, genomics and bioinformatics.
Our funding
The NGTax project receives funding from the European Community’s Horizon 2020 Programme (H2020-MSCA-RISE 2019).
Explore Our Innovative Projects in Taxonomy and Biodiversity
Work accomplished…
but there’s much more to come!
NGTax project produced 21 peer-reviewed publications, with additional manuscripts in preparation, and disseminated its findings through over 20 scientific events. A key achievement was capacity building: 49 researchers and technicians participated in secondments and training activities, acquiring interdisciplinary skills.
NGTax project had a strong international dimension, with ~33% of secondees from African countries and over 50% of mobility supporting these partners. Intersectoral collaboration was also significant, with ~17% of total mobility (36.57 PMs) dedicated to academia–industry exchanges involving GENEWIZ Germany GmbH (GENEWIZ), Consorzio Cuoio Depur Società per Azioni (CUODEP), and Palustrine Design Oy (PDO). This resulted in exploitable outputs, including: (a) standardised genomic and bioinformatics pipelines for mitogenome analysis, and (b) innovative approaches for wastewater monitoring.
Biodiversity of ciliates in freshwater wetlands
Wetland environment is one of the important carbon sources-sinks, where ciliates constitute the core structural and functional component of the microbial food web. However, ciliates in freshwater wetlands have been severely under sampled worldwide. We are now focusing on the biodiversity and spatio-temporal distribution patterns of ciliates in the two representative wetland systems in southern and northern China: the East Lake (Wuhan) and the Weishan Lake (Jining).
Genomic and phylogenomic analyses of ciliates
The unusual genome architecture of ciliates, with separate germline and somatic nuclei in each cell, provides an ideal system to study genome evolution. Due to the difficulty of isolation, identification and cultivation of non-model ciliates, genomic data are available for very few species. We are now trying to combine single-cell genome amplification, culture-based genome data and novel methods of phylogenomic analysis to increase knowledge and understanding of ciliate genomics.
Photosynthetic symbionts of Paramecium bursaria
The ‘green’ ciliate Paramecium bursaria lives in mutualistic symbiosis with green algae belonging to the species Chlorella variabilis or Micractinium conductrix. We analyse the diversity of algal endosymbionts and their P. bursaria hosts.
Candidatus Megaira polyxenophila
“Candidatus Megaira polyxenophila” is a recently described member of Rickettsiaceae, which comprises exclusively obligate intracellular bacteria. Interestingly, these bacteria can be found in a huge diversity of eukaryotic hosts (protist, green algae, metazoa) living in marine, brackish or freshwater habitats. The relationship of “Ca. Megaira polyxenophila” with their hosts and their impact on host fitness have not been studied so far and will be characterized in this project.
Who are we - and what interests us
Team
We are an international consortium of researchers from academia and industries located on three continents (Africa, America, Asia, and Europe). More information about the single partners can be found here.
NGTax Project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the MSCA-RISE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE) Funding Scheme | Grant Agreement No 872767
