DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Local Adaptation of Symbiotic Fungi to Serpentine Soils

已知极端环境对生物体施加强烈的选择，导致局部尺度上种群水平的分化。这项研究将检查共生真菌对蛇形土壤的局部适应，蛇形土壤是一种重金属含量高的极端环境，已知会导致植物的进化变化。从葡萄牙东北部蛇形和非蛇形栎林中收集的共生真菌将在两种土壤类型中进行对照互惠实验，以阐明真菌耐受蛇形环境的能力。这项研究的结果将为极端环境下共生真菌和植物的生态学和进化提供重要的新见解，并将增加我们对蛇形生态系统的理解。本研究的广泛影响包括研究生培训以及与生物保护、生物修复和恢复相关的研究。蛇形土壤是多种植物特有的土壤，其中许多被列为濒危物种。提供在这些生境中发生的共生真菌的信息将对生物多样性保护和管理措施的通知和指导至关重要。这项研究还将为真菌如何应对重金属热点提供有价值的信息。这对生物修复领域极为有用，因为耐重金属共生真菌耐受污染地区（如矿山废料沉积物）的能力对植物群落的建立和维持具有重大影响，进而影响整个陆地生态系统的恢复。此外，生活在蛇形土壤中的真菌是研究重金属耐受机制的模型系统的极好候选者。

Extreme environments are known to exert strong selection on organisms, leading to population-level differentiation at local scales. This research will examine local adaptation in symbiotic fungi to serpentine soil, an extreme environment with high heavy metal content that is known to have caused evolutionary changes in plants. Symbiotic fungi collected from serpentine and non-serpentine oak forests in northeastern Portugal will be grown in both soil types in a controlled reciprocal experiment that will elucidate the ability of fungi to tolerate serpentine environments. Results from this study will provide critical new insights into the ecology and evolution of symbiotic fungi and plants in extreme environments, and they will add to our understanding of serpentine ecosystems. Broader impacts of this study include graduate training and relevance to biological conservation, bioremediation, and restoration. Serpentine soils host multiple plant endemics, many listed as threatened. Providing information on the symbiotic fungi occurring in these habitats will be critical for informing and guiding biodiversity conservation and management measures. This study will also provide valuable information on how fungi cope with heavy metal hotspots. This is extremely useful for the field of bioremediation, since the ability of heavy metal tolerant symbiotic fungi to withstand polluted areas (such as mine waste deposits) has major implications for the establishment and maintenance of plant communities, which then affects recovery of entire terrestrial ecosystems. Also, fungi living in serpentine soils are excellent candidates for model systems for investigating mechanisms of heavy metal tolerance.