COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: Relationships Among Gene Lineages, Morphology, Geography and Fungal Associations in Corallorhizinae (Orchidaceae)

0415920弗罗伊登斯坦兰花是开花植物中最大的家族，种类极其繁多。 它们都寄生在真菌上，至少在种子发芽时是这样，但人们对这种关系知之甚少。 有些兰花依赖真菌的所有营养，因为它们是非光合作用。 珊瑚根属的兰花是最好的例子，包括11种主要产于北美温带山地的陆生植物。 这个小组提供了一个特殊的机会来研究当植物放弃光合作用时发生的变化，因为至少有一个物种是光合作用的，而其他物种不是。 这些变化包括叶绿体DNA的部分丢失，植物的结构改变以及与其相关的真菌群之间的转移。 通过DNA序列分析重建珊瑚根属物种及其真菌种群之间的系统发育关系，将揭示珊瑚根-真菌关联在多大程度上基本上是随机的，而不是针对某些真菌群体;增加兰花形态和位置数据将显示真菌利用的变化是否与这些因素相关。 由于采样密集，现代分布与谱系历史的任何重复相关性都将被显示出来，这可能反映了冰后期的迁徙。 这将提供一个更好的了解如何在北美目前的植物分布。 该项目结合了精心计划的实地工作，以获得兰花和真菌样本，并汇集了俄亥俄州州立大学的兰花专家John Freudenstein和阿拉斯加大学的真菌专家Donald Taylor的专业知识，以促进全面的分析，否则是不可能的，这可能是对植物最详细、最多方面的分析，迄今为止微生物的相互作用。该项目在许多方面对科学和其他领域产生了广泛的影响。 它提供了一个现代方法的综合详细分析开花植物真菌协会，植物形态，基因谱系和地理。 因此，它可以作为今后类似系统工作的模式。 它通过将这些分类群的新收藏品引入博物馆，使其具有广泛的可访问性，并将生成的DNA序列纳入公共数据库，使所有人都可以使用，从而加强了科学基础设施。 与中国、韩国和墨西哥科学家的互动将加强合作网络。 该项目通过将研究生和本科生整合到项目中，将研究和教育结合在一起。 它进一步加强了研究和教学的一体化，利用该项目的结果作为案例研究，在PI的教学课程系统学，微生物多样性和共生，并在他们的推广到广大公众。 这包括与森林服务植物学家就土地使用规划进行持续磋商，以及向各种团体介绍情况。 增加了解兰花真菌的关系有直接的保护效益，因为兰花的发芽和生长需要真菌的合作伙伴。 试图维持或重新引入濒危兰花物种的计划必须解决真菌伴侣身份和可用性的问题。

0415920FreudensteinOrchids comprise the largest family of flowering plants and are extremely diverse. All are parasitic on fungi at least when seeds germinate, but little is known about this relationship. Some orchids depend on fungi for all nutrition because they are non-photosynthetic. Orchids of the genus Corallorhiza are prime examples, comprising 11 species of mainly North American temperate-montane terrestrials. This group provides a special opportunity to study the changes that happen when plants give up photosynthesis, because at least one species is photosynthetic while others are not. Such changes include partial loss of chloroplast DNA, structural modifications of the plant, and shifts among the groups of their associated fungi. Reconstructing phylogenetic relationships among populations of the species of Corallorhiza and their fungi through analysis of DNA sequences will reveal to what extent the orchid-fungal association is essentially random vs. targeted to certain fungal groups; adding orchid morphology and locality data will show whether shifts in fungal utilization are at all correlated with these factors. Because of the intensive sampling, any repeated correlations of present-day distribution with lineage histories will be shown, which might reflect post-glacial migration. This will provide a better understanding of how current plant distributions in North America came to be. The project incorporates carefully planned fieldwork to obtain both orchid and fungal samples, and brings together the expertise of orchid specialist John Freudenstein at Ohio State University and fungal specialist Donald Taylor at University of Alaska to facilitate a comprehensive analysis that would not otherwise be possible, yielding perhaps the most detailed and multifaceted analysis of a plant-microbe interaction to date.This project has broad impact for science and beyond in a number of ways. It provides a synthesis of modern approaches to a detailed analysis of flowering plant-fungal associations, plant morphology, gene lineages and geography. As such, it may serve as a model for future work on similar systems. It enhances the infrastructure of science by bringing new collections of these taxa into museums where they have broad accessibility and the DNA sequences generated into public databases where they will be available to all. The interactions with scientists in China, Korea and Mexico will result in strengthened networks of cooperation. The project brings together research and education by integrating graduate and undergraduate students in the project. It further enhances the integration of research and teaching by utilization of the results of the project as a case study in the PIs' teaching in courses on systematics, microbial diversity and symbiosis, and in their outreach to the public at large. This includes ongoing consultation with forest service botanists on land use planning, as well as presentations to various groups. Increased understanding of orchid-fungus relationships has direct conservation benefits, since fungal partners are required for orchid germination and growth. Programs that attempt to maintain or reintroduce endangered species of orchids must address the issue of fungal partner identity and availability.