Cyber catalog and revision of the nematode genus Enchodelus (Nordiidae, Dorylaimida)

Project Coordinator

Milka Elshishka, Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria

Project Members

• Milka Elshishka, Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria
• Vlada Peneva, Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria
• Aleksandar Mladenov, Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria 
• Stela Altash, Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research,  Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria
• Reyes Peña-Santiago, University of Jaén, Spain
• Sergio Álvarez-Ortega, Rey Juan Carlos University, Spain

BiCIKL Contact person

Donat Agosti, Plazi

BiCIKL Research Infrastructures involved

GBIF, CoL, Treatment Bank, Biodiversity Literature Repository, ENA, iBOL

Non-BiCIKL Research Infrastructures accessed

NCBI (GenBank), BOLD

Biodiversity data classes and services included

• Scanned and data mined taxonomic treatments and other data from the literature.
• Digitized information on type material and all possible other material.
• Data on the distribution of species from literature and collections.
• Images of all species assembled in a dataset for further use.

Background

Cyber catalogue and revision of the nematode genus Enchodelus (Nordiidae, Dorylaimida).

Taxonomic history. Genus Enchodelus was erected in 1939 by Thorne. Ahmad and Jairajpuri (1980) revised it and grouped the species into five subgenera (Enchodelus, Rotundus, Paraenchodelus, Heterodorus, Nepalus), based on some morphological characters (tail shape (the first two have rounded tail, the others – conoid), odontostyle length, morphology of odontophore, peculiarities of female genital system). Andrássy (2009) considered all enchodelid species with conoid tails to belong to a different genus – Heterodorus Altherr, 1952, thus simplifying and clarifying Enchodelus taxonomy.

Environmental relationships. Genus Enchodelus currently includes 29 species showing peculiar distributional patterns, being spread only in the northern hemisphere. The members of the genus are common at high altitudes (1260-4400 m a.s.l.) and latitudes (northern territories), frequently associated with mosses and rock vegetation. As the species are found mainly in natural habitats, the genus can be considered to have a conservation value.

Gaps in the knowledge. Many of the “old” species’ descriptions are hardly discoverable, which makes the study of the genus very difficult. In various databases, there is data presented only for some species, however largely incomplete and with important information missing. Only two species, described by Thorne (1939) have been redescribed (Guerrero and Peña-Santiago 2007). The authors provided complete descriptions, illustrations and discussions. The other “old” species have never been studied. This complicates the taxonomy of the genus, species identifications as well as the descriptions of new species. A detailed study of the available literature data and collection materials is needed to clarify the taxonomic relationships within the genus. Furthermore, the reconstruction of phylogenetic relationships within the genus is obstructed by the limited number of rDNA sequences available in GenBank. Therefore, more systematic integrative studies are needed.

The aim of the project proposal is to create a cyber catalogue of the genus by bringing together all available information on the species of genus Enchodelus. This will contribute to more complete assessment of the species diversity and distribution and will support further biogeographical and ecological studies.

Main activities:

• Review digitization, text and data mining of available literature. Collection of data for morphology, taxonomy, occurrences (localities, geographic coordinates, altitude, microhabitats etc.)
• Studies and digitization of available materials from different collections.
• Description of new species, if it is possible new sequenced genetic material.
• Elaboration of an interactive pictorial key.
• Publishing of a cyber catalogue, where several data elements (specimens, sequences, taxon treatments, taxon concepts, person names and others) will be linked to trusted external resources through their persistent identifiers.

Expected outcomes

It is expected as main outcome of the project to create a cyber catalogue of all species of the genus Enchodelus with digitised original taxonomic descriptions, other treatments of the same taxon, new redescriptions, synonyms, data on geographic coordinates, altitude, description of microhabitats, data for collections, where the holotype and paratype materials have been deposited, illustrations both from the legacy literature and newly obtained, available and new sequenced genetic material. The catalogue will be supplemented by additional data and descriptions of new species. Thus, a full picture of all known information on the species of the genus Enchodelus will be provided at one place.

In the frame of this research project an interactive pictorial key will be elaborated.

The results will be linked to records in GBIF, CoL, Treatment Bank, Biodiversity Literature Repository,  ENA, iBOL. Thanks to it, the data which until now are not available in a digitised version will be made accessible and FAIR for the scientific community.

This study will provide an innovative approach for presenting the holistic information about a given taxon. The cyber catalogue will be published in the Biodiversity Data Journal and will serve as an exemplar model work for this kind of data assemblage on a taxon in nematology and possibility in other disciplines.

Results

This project was supervised by the BiCIKL partner Plazi. The research group consisted of 6 scientists (4 from Bulgaria and 2 from Spain) and was led by Dr Milka Elshsihka from the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia. 86 publications and 1,570 pages have been processed, from which 1,525 taxonomic treatments, 145 tables, 508 figures, 3,656 bibliographic references and 212 material citations have been extracted, converted to FAIR data, deposited and made accessible for citation and future re-use in TreatmentBank, BLR, GBIF and OpenBiodiv. Extracted "old" (re)descriptions of the species of Enchodelus, including species distribution data, collection data, sequence data, tables, images and the newly generated knowledge (new species description from the Caucasus (Georgia), phylogenetic analysis, pictorial key of all species and discussions of the taxonomic status) were assembled in a “cyber catalogue” of the genus, currently under review in the BiCIKL article collection in the Biodiversity Data Journal (see also TNA project No 5 below).