The initial draft of the “Tree of Life” open source was recently featured by two University of Michigan biologists and other scientists. The evolution guide showcased an estimated 2.3 million named species of plants, animals, fungi and microbes.
It is possibly the first study to apply an efficient and automated process to assemble published trees into a full tree of life. A summary of the findings was published on September 18, 2015 in the online journal “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences”. The digital resource is available on the internet for free at https://tree.opentreeoflife.org. The sophisticated “Tree of Life” was developed by the joint efforts of 11 institutions, showing the relationships among living beings as these slowly diversified through the centuries. The presentation started with life on Earth over 3.5 billion years ago.
“This is the first real attempt to connect the dots and put it all together. Think of it as Version 1.0,” said principal investigator Karen Cranston of Duke University, in a report by Eurekalert.
Scientists used gene sequences and morphological information to create tens of thousands of evolutionary trees that show the evolutionary history of plants, animals and microorganisms. There are 1.8 million named species, while most have not yet been described. The “Tree of Life” will help scientists better understand how the millions of species in the world are related to one another. Hopefully, the information will help experts create new drugs, determine the origins and prevent the spread of lethal diseases like HIV and Ebola, as well as boost livestock and crop yields, Nature World Report stated.
The initial draft was based on almost 500 smaller trees from previous studies. The researchers wrote that the draft tree of life only represents a first step, despite being a massive undertaking on its own. Co-author Douglas Soltis of the University of Florida said that although the tree was essential in presenting what they already knew about relationships, it also pointed out various subjects that they still have no knowledge of. The fill the gap, the researchers is developing a software that will allow them to log on and update information. Researchers can revise and add new data to the tree to account for the millions of species that are still to be discovered and named.
The video lasts about 10 minutes.
The research was supported by a grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation, amount to $5.76 million and spanning three years.