Dissertation Research: Coevolutionary Consequences of Symbiosis: a Biogeographic Study of a Fungal Virus

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Intimate interactions between disparate organisms are ubiquitous throughout nature and have pronounced impacts on the evolution of the participating organisms. The proposed research will investigate the effects of symbiotic interactions on the attributes of the populations of viruses that infect a fungal pathogen of corn. Specifically this research will: 1) compare ancestral and descendant virus populations, 2) assess migration and gene flow among viral populations, 3) estimate the infection frequency of the virus in fungal populations, and 4) estimate the frequency of virus that produce toxins. This research will determine how characteristics of host and populations affect the evolution of the symbiosis. Complex symbiotic interactions are important in human, animal, and plant diseases. Broader Impacts- Experience gained from this project will assist existing international collaborations with researchers in South America in understanding how symbioses can affect agricultural ecology and evolution. In addition, an undergraduate trained to participate in this research is an underrepresented minority who will be conducting her Honors Thesis under the guidance of the dissertation student.