The Effects of Plant Hosts and Species Pools on the Assembly of Fungal Endophyte Communities

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Plants harbor a large number of fungi, known as fungal endophytes, which live asymptomatically within their aboveground tissues. These fungal endophytes have many important effects on their plant hosts, such as increasing host size and preventing hosts from being eaten or becoming diseased. Although fungal endophytes are extremely important to the health and interactions of their plant hosts, relatively few endophytes have been well-documented or studied. Little is actually known about how fungal endophyte communities are formed and how their biodiversity is maintained. The proposed research uses interdisciplinary approaches to investigate how the host plant and the availability of different fungal species interact to form the endophyte community, with an emphasis toward understanding how many and which fungal species are part of the endophyte community on particular host plant species. Results from this research will provide important insights into understanding how changes in the number of plant species, through either species extinction or invasion, or in the make-up of plant communities can affect fungal biodiversity. Broader impacts of the proposed research include the scientific training of undergraduate and graduate students, and the development of a laboratory exercise to introduce students to interdisciplinary approaches to science and, more specifically, to teach them about the role of fungi and microbes in the environment.