Species delimitation 4.0: integrative taxonomy meets artificial intelligence.

Journal: Trends in ecology & evolution
PMID: 38849221

Abstract

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.

Authors

  • Kevin Karbstein
    Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Department of Biogeochemical Integration, 07745 Jena, Germany. Electronic address: kkarb@bgc-jena.mpg.de.
  • Lara Kösters
    Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Department of Biogeochemical Integration, 07745 Jena, Germany.
  • Ladislav Hodač
    Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Department of Biogeochemical Integration, 07745 Jena, Germany.
  • Martin Hofmann
    Department of Urology, Glickman Urological and Kidney Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA; Department of Urology, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA.
  • Elvira Hörandl
    University of Göttingen, Albrecht-von-Haller Institute for Plant Sciences, Department of Systematics, Biodiversity and Evolution of Plants (with Herbarium), 37073 Göttingen, Germany.
  • Salvatore Tomasello
    University of Göttingen, Albrecht-von-Haller Institute for Plant Sciences, Department of Systematics, Biodiversity and Evolution of Plants (with Herbarium), 37073 Göttingen, Germany.
  • Natascha D Wagner
    University of Göttingen, Albrecht-von-Haller Institute for Plant Sciences, Department of Systematics, Biodiversity and Evolution of Plants (with Herbarium), 37073 Göttingen, Germany.
  • Brent C Emerson
    Institute of Natural Products and Agrobiology (IPNA-CSIC), Island Ecology and Evolution Research Group, 38206 La Laguna, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain.
  • Dirk C Albach
    Carl von Ossietzky-Universität Oldenburg, Institute of Biology and Environmental Science, 26129 Oldenburg, Germany.
  • Stefan Scheu
    University of Göttingen, Johann-Friedrich-Blumenbach Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, 37073 Göttingen, Germany; University of Göttingen, Centre of Biodiversity and Sustainable Land Use (CBL), 37073 Göttingen, Germany.
  • Sven Bradler
    University of Göttingen, Johann-Friedrich-Blumenbach Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, 37073 Göttingen, Germany.
  • Jan de Vries
    University of Göttingen, Institute for Microbiology and Genetics, Department of Applied Bioinformatics, 37077 Göttingen, Germany; University of Göttingen, Campus Institute Data Science (CIDAS), 37077 Göttingen, Germany; University of Göttingen, Göttingen Center for Molecular Biosciences (GZMB), Department of Applied Bioinformatics, 37077 Göttingen, Germany.
  • Iker Irisarri
    Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change (LIB), Centre for Molecular Biodiversity Research, Phylogenomics Section, Museum of Nature, 20146 Hamburg, Germany.
  • He Li
    National Soybean Processing Industry Technology Innovation Center, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Food Nutrition and Human Health, Beijing Technology and Business University Beijing 100048 China lihe@btbu.edu.cn liuxinqi@btbu.edu.cn.
  • Pamela Soltis
    University of Florida, Florida Museum of Natural History, 32611 Gainesville, USA.
  • Patrick Mäder
    Software Engineering for Safety-Critical Systems Group, Technische Universität Ilmenau, Ehrenbergstraße 29, 98693, Ilmenau, Germany.
  • Jana Wäldchen
    Department of Biochemical Integration, Max-Planck-Institute for Biogeochemistry, Hans-Knöll-Straße 10, 07745, Jena, Germany.

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