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.

昆虫是物种多样性最为丰富的后生动物（metazoan）类群之一。它们在绝大多数非海洋生态系统中发挥着关键生态功能，且诸多昆虫物种具备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生境中的生命演化规律至关重要。1KITE（1K Insect Transcriptome Evolution，千种昆虫转录组进化）项目旨在对1000种昆虫物种的转录组（transcriptome，即全部表达基因的集合）开展研究，这些物种涵盖了所有已被正式确认的昆虫目级类群。针对每个物种，研究团队将借助下一代测序技术（next generation sequencing，简称NGS）获取表达序列标签（Expressed Sequence Tags，简称EST）。该项目预期产生的数据将首次支持构建出稳健可靠的昆虫系统发育骨架树。此外，该项目还将开发用于数据质量评估与分析的专用软件工具。