The 1KITE project: evolution of insects

Insects are one of the most species-rich groups of metazoan organisms. They play a pivotal role in most non-marine ecosystems and many insect species are of enormous economical and medical importance. Unraveling the evolution of insects is essential for understanding how life in terrestrial and limnic environments evolved. The 1KITE (1K Insect Transcriptome Evolution) project aims to study the transcriptomes (that is the entirety of expressed genes) of 1,000 insect species encompassing all recognized insect orders. For each species, so-called ESTs (Expressed Sequence Tags) will be produced using next generation sequencing techniques (NGS). The expected data will allow inferring for the first time a robust phylogenetic backbone tree of insects. Furthermore, the project includes the development of new software for data quality assessment and analysis.

昆虫是物种丰富度最高的后生动物类群之一。它们在绝大多数非海洋生态系统中发挥着关键作用，诸多昆虫物种兼具极高的经济与医学价值。解析昆虫的演化历程，对于理解陆地与淡水环境中的生命演化规律至关重要。1K昆虫转录组进化计划（1K Insect Transcriptome Evolution，1KITE）旨在对涵盖所有公认昆虫目级类群的1000个昆虫物种的转录组（即表达基因的全集）开展研究。针对每个物种，研究团队将采用下一代测序技术（next generation sequencing techniques，NGS）生成所谓的表达序列标签（Expressed Sequence Tags，ESTs）。预期获取的数据将首次助力构建稳健可靠的昆虫系统发育骨干树。此外，该项目还将开发用于数据质量评估与分析的新型软件。