Biodiversity of Cryptic Fungal Symbionts, Harpellales, Living Within the Guts of Aquatic Insects in North America

NSF BS I提案0344722Merlin M.白色，PI真菌属于Harpellales（毛菌纲），隐藏在未成熟的水生昆虫的肠道内，如蜉蝣、石蝇和许多种类的低等双翅目昆虫（蚊子、黑蝇、蠓等）。与宿主的共生关系通常是共生或中性的，但有些真菌可以为昆虫宿主提供营养，以便在环境中食物不理想时更快地发育。其他真菌物种在昆虫发育的某个阶段是寄生的。虽然已知Harpellales是世界性的，但所有证据表明，只有一小部分真菌物种是已知的，在这项研究中，将发现许多新的宿主类型，并将发现新的共生关系。密集的实地工作将揭示Harpellales在北美的物种丰富度，包括美国，加拿大和墨西哥，后者的国家迄今尚未探索。与会者将包括各国的真菌学和昆虫学合作者以及学生学员。如果可能的话，将培养新的物种。从培养物中以及直接从肠道内真菌中提取DNA，将用于测序和分支分析，以加强Harpellales内的系统发育研究，并更准确地确定它们与其他真菌的关系，从而对这些共生体的起源和进化产生更实质性的假设，并更好地了解它们的当前和历史地理学。将开发一个全世界所有Harpellales的综合性全球数据库，以包括真菌和宿主的分类信息，以及地理分布，栖息地类型和其他相关信息的收集数据。将产生所有已知物种的交互式密钥。所有这些资料，包括新物种的说明和图像，都将在因特网上提供，并增列入现有的专题论文（www.nhm.ku.edu/pasticfungi）。还将在互联网上以光盘格式向真菌学家、昆虫学家和学生提供关于收集、解剖、培养和研究昆虫中这些隐蔽真菌的方法的说明。

NSF BS&I Proposal 0344722Merlin M. White, PI Fungi belonging to the order Harpellales (class Trichomycetes) live hidden within the guts of immature aquatic insects, such as mayflies, stoneflies, and many kinds of lower dipterans (mosquitoes, blackflies, midges, etc.). The symbiotic relationships with their hosts are usually commensalistic or neutral, but some fungi can provide nutrients to the insect hosts to allow more rapid host development when food is suboptimal in the environment. Other fungal species are parasitic at some stage of the insect development. Though Harpellales are known to be worldwide, all evidence suggests that only a fraction of the fungal species is known, that in this study many new host types will be found, and that new symbiotic relationships will be discovered. Intensive field work will reveal the species richness of Harpellales in North America, to include USA, Canada, and Mexico, the latter country being unexplored to date. Participants will include mycological and entomological collaborators in each country, and student trainees. New species will be cultured when possible. and extraction of DNA from cultures as well as directly from fungi within the gut will be used for sequencing and cladistic analysis to strengthen phylogenetic studies within the Harpellales and to determine more accurately their relationships with other fungi, thus producing more substantial hypotheses on the origins and evolution of these symbionts and a better understanding of their current and historical biogeography. A comprehensive worldwide database of all Harpellales worldwide will be developed to include information on the taxonomy of fungi and hosts, and collection data on geographical distributions, types of habitats, and other pertinent information. Interactive keys to all known species will be produced. All of this information, including descriptions of new species and images, will be available and added to an existing monograph on the Internet (www.nhm.ku.edu/~fungi). Also provided on the Internet and in compact disk format will be instructions to mycologists, entomologists, and students on methods of collecting, dissecting, culturing, and studying these cryptic fungi in insects.