Collaborative Research: Functional Significance of "Dark Septate" Endophytes in Grassland and Meadow Ecosystems of Western North America

植物根部为各种真菌提供了营养丰富的环境。这些真菌参与了几个生态系统功能：分解死亡的物质，促进植物养分的吸收，以及陆地动物的食物来源。这项研究计划集中在一组新的根伴生真菌上。这些真菌似乎在许多生态系统中非常常见，但它们的功能仍然超出了以前的调查范围。这项研究计划旨在确定目标真菌是否在北美草原上普遍存在，相同的真菌是否出现在不同的草原上，以及它们的功能是什么。将使用显微和微生物学技术相结合的方法来估计生物的丰度，并确定草原上常见的参与者。一旦选定了最常见的真菌，将确定真菌可以利用的营养来源。根据这些结果，将确定这些真菌在帮助植物利用养分方面的作用。了解这些与根相关的真菌的功能是至关重要的，因为它们可能是植物表现的关键因素，并允许获得植物原本无法获得的营养来源。因此，这些真菌可能成为低影响或有机农业中生物施肥的重要选择。这项拟议的研究还有一个重要的培训部分：将涉及一名博士后、两名研究生和至少两名本科生。拟议的研究将在堪萨斯州立大学的分子生态学家和俄勒冈州立大学的生态系统生态学家(Myroeld)之间建立一个新的创新研究合作。

Plant roots provide a nutrient-rich environment for a variety of fungi. These fungi participate in several ecosystem functions: decomposition of dead material, facilitation of plant nutrient uptake, and a food source for terrestrial animals. This research program focuses on a new group of root-associated fungi. These fungi appear extremely common in many ecosystems, yet their function has remained beyond the scope of previous investigations. This research program aims to determine whether the target fungi are common throughout North American grasslands, whether the same fungi occur in different grasslands, and what is their function. A combination of microscopic and microbiological techniques will be used to estimate the abundance of the organisms and to identify the common players across the grasslands. Once a selection of the most common fungi has been established sources of nutrients, which the fungi can utilize will be determined. Based on these results the role of these fungi in aiding plant nutrient use will be determined. Understanding the function of these root-associated fungi is crucial as they may be key players in plant performance and allow access to nutrient sources otherwise not available to the plants. Accordingly, these fungi may become an important option for biofertilization in low impact or organic agriculture. The proposed research has also a significant training component: one post-doc, two graduate students and at least two undergraduate students will be involved. The proposed studies will establish a new and innovative research collaboration between a molecular ecologist at Kansas State University and ecosystem ecologist (Myrold) at Oregon State University.