Abstract Detail

Systematics

Gazis, Romina [1], Rees, Jonathan [2], Ree, Rick [3], Smith, Stephen [4], Hibbett, David [1].

Lost in translation: challenges of transferring information from phylogenies into taxonomy.

It is widely accepted that taxonomy should reflect phylogeny; however, in the fungal community there seems to be a lapse between the time phylogenetic hypotheses are published and the actual update of the taxonomy. More than 100,000 fungal species have been described so far; therefore, managing and keeping an updated classification is not a trivial task. As a consequence of sequencing become more affordable, the number of phylogenetic studies has boomed in the last decade. At the same time the amount of data available to build phylogenies have also increased to the point the complete genomes are now being used to infer phylogenies. With this increase in taxon sampling and sequence data, many new phylogenetic hypotheses have been proposed, which in many cases conflict with previously accepted relationships based on smaller datasets or on morphological data. In an effort to build a comprehensive synthetic fungal tree of life, the Open Tree of Life project has gathered hundreds of fungal phylogenies, at different taxonomic scales. One of the main objectives of this project is that the synthetic tree should be comprehensive, meaning that species that had not been included in any phylogenetic study, and for which no molecular data is available, should also be included in the synthesis. Here we present the challenges the Open tree of Life project has faced in synthesizing a comprehensive fungal tree of life that includes both, a taxonomic and phylogenetic component. We also present the tools we are designing to alleviate this problem and aid in the translation of phylogenies into taxonomy.

1 - Clark University, Biology Department, 950 Main street, Worcester, MA, 01610, USA
2 - Open Tree of Life
3 - Field Museum Of Natural History, Botany, 1400 S Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL, 60605, USA
4 - University of Michigan Medical School, Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics

Keywords:
Taxonomy
phylogeny
Open Tree of Life.

Presentation Type: Offered Paper - Paper
Session: 8
Location: Room 103 AB/Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center
Date: Tuesday, June 10th, 2014
Time: 9:15 AM
Number: 8004
Abstract ID:151
Candidate for Awards:None