DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Ecological and Genomic Patterns in the Evolution of Symbiosis in the Fungal Genus Amanita

在安妮·普林格尔博士的指导下，哈佛大学获得了一项研究真菌和木本植物共生关系的奖项。 这笔赠款将改善本杰明沃尔夫的博士论文研究。 外生菌根真菌在木本植物根表面形成共生体。 这种共生通过增强水和矿物质的吸收而使植物受益，并且它为真菌提供了来自植物的营养来源。 这些共生体在形成蘑菇的真菌中进化了多次。 然而，生态和基因组的变化，在这些共生真菌仍然知之甚少。 这项工作将使用鹅膏属，一个属，包括许多有毒物种，包括共生和非共生真菌物种。 将构建200种鹅膏菌属物种的分子系统发育，以确定鹅膏菌属中共生进化的次数。 为了研究共生的进化如何影响资源获取，将测量鹅膏属物种的碳和氮的稳定同位素。 功能基因的结构和基因组大小的估计将用于评估与共生进化相关的基因组变化。该项目将提供外生菌根共生的演变，在森林生态系统中的经济和生态重要的共生的见解。 这项工作也将直接有助于培养博士。学生，为本科生提供研究机会，并促进大学研究实验室，公民科学家和科学教育工作者之间的合作。

An award has been made to Harvard University under the direction of Dr. Anne Pringle to study the symbiosis of fungi and woody plants. The grant will improve the doctoral dissertation research of Benjamin Wolfe. Ectomycorrhizal fungi form symbiotic associations on the surface of woody plant roots. This symbiosis benefits the plant by enhancing water and mineral absorption, and it provides the fungi with a source of nutrients from the plant. These symbioses have evolved multiple times throughout the mushroom forming fungi. However, ecological and genomic changes in the fungi in these symbioses remain poorly understood. This work will use the genus Amanita, a genus that includes many toxic species and includes both symbiotic and nonsymbiotic species of fungi. A molecular phylogeny of 200 Amanita species will be constructed to determine the number of times symbiosis has evolved in Amanita. To examine how the evolution of symbiosis affects resource acquisition, stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen will be measured for Amanita species. The structure of functional genes and estimates of genome size will be used to assess genomic changes associated with the evolution of symbiosis. This project will provide insight on the evolution of the ectomycorrhizal symbiosis, an economically and ecologically important symbiosis in forest ecosystems. This work will also directly contribute to the training of a Ph.D. student, provide research opportunities for undergraduate students, and foster collaborations between university research labs, citizen scientists, and science educators.