Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Department of Biogeochemical Integration, 07745 Jena, Germany.
Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Department of Biogeochemical Integration, 07745 Jena, Germany.
Trends Ecol Evol. 2024 Aug;39(8):771-784. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2023.11.002. Epub 2024 Jun 6.
Although species are central units for biological research, recent findings in genomics are raising awareness that what we call species can be ill-founded entities due to solely morphology-based, regional species descriptions. This particularly applies to groups characterized by intricate evolutionary processes such as hybridization, polyploidy, or asexuality. Here, challenges of current integrative taxonomy (genetics/genomics + morphology + ecology, etc.) become apparent: different favored species concepts, lack of universal characters/markers, missing appropriate analytical tools for intricate evolutionary processes, and highly subjective ranking and fusion of datasets. Now, integrative taxonomy combined with artificial intelligence under a unified species concept can enable automated feature learning and data integration, and thus reduce subjectivity in species delimitation. This approach will likely accelerate revising and unraveling eukaryotic biodiversity.
虽然物种是生物学研究的核心单位，但最近在基因组学方面的发现引起了人们的关注，即由于仅仅基于形态的区域性物种描述，我们所谓的物种可能是没有根据的实体。这尤其适用于那些以杂交、多倍体或无性繁殖等复杂进化过程为特征的群体。在这些情况下，当前综合分类学（遗传学/基因组学+形态学+生态学等）面临的挑战变得明显：不同的有利物种概念、缺乏通用特征/标记、缺乏复杂进化过程的适当分析工具，以及数据集的高度主观排序和融合。现在，综合分类学与人工智能相结合，并采用统一的物种概念，可以实现自动化的特征学习和数据集成，从而减少物种划分中的主观性。这种方法可能会加速修订和揭示真核生物多样性。
