Item

Abstract

Our lab has developed the nematode Pristionchus pacificus as a model system in evolutionary and comparative biology. Our work integrates developmental biology with ecology and population genetics combining lab-based mechanistic studies in genetics and molecular biology and fieldwork. Such work requires a detailed natural history and phylogenic perspective. Over the years, we have collected and described a total of 28 Pristionchus species, the majority of which lives in an association with scarab beetles, similar to what is found for P. pacificus. Like in most nematode genera, information on the taxonomy, systematics and phylogeny is spread over many sources and is often unavailable to individual researchers. We describe here Pristionchus-Scratchpads, which we developed as a dynamic, searchable and community-driven online platform. Pristionchus-Scratchpads covers Pristionchus taxonomic data in morphology, molecular diagnosis and biogeog- raphy and provides links to the published literature. Thus, Pristionchus-Scratchpads helps researchers throughout the world obtain an overview of published work on Pristionchus and serves as a platform for requesting live material. We will discuss Pristionchus-Scratchpads as a framework for similar projects in other nematodes and will describe the necessary boundary conditions. Also, we want to discuss future taxonomic research in Pristionchus itself.