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

梅林·m·怀特，PI隶属于毛菌目的真菌隐藏在未成熟的水生昆虫的内脏中，如蜉蝣、石蝇和许多低等双翅目昆虫（蚊子、黑蝇、蠓等）。与寄主的共生关系通常是共生或中性的，但一些真菌可以为昆虫寄主提供营养，使寄主在环境中食物不足时能够更快地发育。其他种类的真菌在昆虫发育的某个阶段是寄生的。虽然已知Harpellales分布在世界各地，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，将发现许多新的寄主类型，并发现新的共生关系。密集的野外工作将揭示北美的Harpellales物种丰富度，包括美国，加拿大和墨西哥，后者迄今尚未开发。参与者将包括每个国家的真菌学和昆虫学合作者以及实习学生。在可能的情况下，将培育新物种。从培养物中提取DNA以及直接从肠道内的真菌中提取DNA将用于测序和分支分析，以加强Harpellales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有意义的假设，并更好地了解它们的当前和历史生物地理学。将建立一个全面的全球Harpellales数据库，包括真菌和寄主的分类信息、地理分布、栖息地类型和其他相关信息的收集数据。所有已知物种的交互密钥将被生成。所有这些信息，包括对新物种的描述和图像，都将被添加到互联网上现有的专著中（www.nhm.ku.edu/~fungi）。此外，还将在互联网和光盘格式中提供真菌学家、昆虫学家和学生收集、解剖、培养和研究昆虫中这些隐真菌的方法的说明。

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.