Survey of Hypogeous Fungi on Forest Islands in the Great Basin

次生真菌(松露和假松露)是研究真菌与植物寄主关系的理想生物。这些真菌与树木形成专性的外生菌根联合，也依赖啮齿动物的孢子传播。大盆地是这类研究的理想环境，因为在被荒凉的沙漠隔开的广泛散布的森林“岛屿”中发现了虚假的真菌，缺乏适当的外生菌根宿主作为岛屿之间传播的“垫脚石”。面积714,854平方公里的大盆地林岛真菌调查1,500件藏品，实际上是大盆地大部分地区仅有的1500件藏品的补充，这些藏品是从该地区有限的藏品中积累起来的。这些收集的数据将被用来扩展现有的数据库，产生该地区虚假的真菌区系，并测试生物地理学和进化生物学的几个理论。此外，从标本中获得的信息将对选择真菌进行人工接种树苗以在大流域重新造林具有重要价值。这些数据也将对对小型哺乳动物可用饮食项目感兴趣的野生动物管理者有用。标本本身将提供DNA，用于测试系统发育关系、控制大物种形成的因素，以及隔离的劣质真菌种群的遗传结构。

Hypogeous fungi (truffles and false truffles) are ideal organisms for studying the relationships of fungi and their plant hosts. These fungi form obligate, ectomycorrhizal associations with trees and are also dependent on rodents for spore dispersal. The Great Basin is an ideal setting for such studies because hypogeous fungi are found in widely scattered forest "islands" separated by inhospitable desert lacking appropriate ectomycorrhizal hosts to serve as "stepping-stones" for dispersal between islands. A survey on hypogeous fungi on forest islands in the Great Basin, an area of 714,854 sq. km., is proposed to supplement the 1500 collections, virtually, the only collections from most of the Great Basin, that have been amassed from limited collecting in the area. Data from the collections will be used to expand an existing database, produce a hypogeous mycoflora of the region, and test several theories of biogeography and evolutionary biology. In addition, information from the specimens will be valuable in selecting fungi for artificial inoculation of tree seedlings for reforestation in the Great Basin. The data will also be useful to wildlife managers interested in the dietary items available to small mammals. The specimens themselves will provide DNA for testing phylogenetic relationships, factors controlling macrospeciation, and the genetic structure of isolated populations of hypogeous fungi.