GIRIBET, G.*; EDGECOMBE, G.D.; KRISTENSEN, R.M.; MARTINDALE, M.Q.; SEAVER, E.C.; SORENSEN, M.V.; ROUSE, G.W.; WHEELER, W.C.; Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University; The Australian Museum; Zoological Museum, University of Copenhagen; Kewalo Marine Laboratory, University of Hawaii; Kewalo Marine Laboratory, University of Hawaii; University of Copenhagen; South Australian Museum; American Museum of Natural History: Assembling the Protostome Tree of Life

Protostomes comprise more than 95% of extant animal diversity. Here we will present our NSF AToL research grant to integrate and disseminate the broadest possible collection of information on selected representatives of all protostome phyla to address questions of their origin and evolution over more than 540 million years. To do this, we sampled multiple evolutionary lineages of extant taxa from each protostome phylum and relevant extinct Cambrian, Ordovician, and Silurian fauna. From these taxonomic samples, we have extracted broad-based genomic information derived from PCR, rt-PCR and EST techniques, and integrate these sequence data with new ultrastructural, fine anatomical, and developmental data using gene expression approaches as well as cell-lineage studies and 4D-microscopy. Such a large and diverse data set (ca. 250 taxa, 20 Kb per specimen, ca. 500 morphological characters and complex developmental variants) will require novel and intensive databasing tools (for reliable storage and retrieval of information) and computational approaches. Extensive fieldwork is being conducted to collect high quality fresh material suitable for developmental, ultrastructural, and molecular analysis. This multidisciplinary approach to the problem of protostome evolution should yield a result of high stability and utility for a range of studies on the evolution of animals; such as origins of mesoderm and body cavities, nervous system, spiral cleavage and potential correlates between the evolution of specific loci and general organismic patterns.