Dimensions: Collaborative Research: An Interdisciplinary Study of Hyperdiverse Fungal Endophytes and Their Function in Boreal Forests

作为生态和进化创新的主要来源，共生推动了基因组进化、生态多样化和物种形成，从而塑造了生命多样性的各个方面。本研究的目的是研究内生菌的分类、遗传和功能多样性，内生菌是地球上最普遍但最不为人所知的共生体之一。内生真菌存在于包括作物和饲料植物在内的所有植物的健康地上组织中（地衣中也被称为“内生真菌”），其系统发育多样性在北方森林中达到顶峰，这是一个具有巨大全球重要性的濒危生态系统。这项跨学科的研究将为发现、评估和描述环北带内内生植物在多个空间和系统发育尺度上的新物种提供新的生物多样性信息学管道。基于培养和无培养的调查将产生迄今为止最大的内生真菌样本，为测试关于子囊菌门生态模式进化的新假设奠定基础，子囊菌门是物种最丰富的真菌门；首次建立了评价内生菌群落功能多样性的新模型系统；并阐明了形成这种多样性的遗传机制，包括可移动的遗传元素、菌丝内微生物共生体和基因组进化。数据将通过围绕核苷酸分析程序套件（SNAP）建立的集成系统进行管理和发布，并通过专用门户网站EnDoBiodiversity.org公开。这个高度整合的项目还旨在促进高中生、STEM教师、本科生和研究生以及博士后学者的科学多样性，其规模从四所大学的本地外展到广泛的国际合作。主办国际研究人员，领导国际研讨会，以及发展国际专题讨论会将协同真菌分类学和分子系统学，同时将物种描述的速度提高到前所未有的水平，并在真菌共生体研究中促进新的合作。建立和共享新的生物多样性信息学工具将由永久性真菌培养收集和广泛的分子序列数据集的开发和沉积来补充。

As major sources of ecological and evolutionary innovation, symbioses drive genome evolution, ecological diversification, and speciation - and thus shape all dimensions of the diversity of life. The goal of this study is to examine the taxonomic, genetic, and functional diversity of endophytes, one of Earth's most prevalent, but least-understood, groups of symbionts. Endophytic fungi are found within healthy above-ground tissues of all plants (and in lichens as "endolichenic fungi"), including crop- and forage plants, and peak in their phylogenetic diversity in boreal forests, an imperiled ecosystem of immense global importance. This interdisciplinary study will develop a novel biodiversity informatics pipeline to discover, evaluate, and describe new species of boreal endophytes at multiple spatial and phylogenetic scales around the circumboreal belt. Culture-based and culture-free surveys will yield the largest sample of endophytic fungi to date, setting the stage for testing novel hypotheses regarding the evolution of ecological modes in the Ascomycota, the most species-rich fungal phylum; developing new model systems for evaluating, for the first time, the functional diversity of endophyte communities; and elucidating the genetic mechanisms shaping that diversity, including mobile genetic elements, endohyphal microbial symbionts, and genome evolution. Data will be managed and released through an integrated system built around the Suite of Nucleotide Analysis Programs (SNAP) and made public through a dedicated web portal, EnDoBiodiversity.org. This highly integrative project also seeks to promote diversity in science for high school students, STEM teachers, undergraduate and graduate students, and postdoctoral scholars at scales ranging from local outreach at four universities to widespread international collaboration. Hosting of international researchers, leadership of international workshops, and development of international symposia will synergize fungal taxonomy and molecular systematics while boosting rates of species descriptions to a level never reached before and fostering novel collaborations in the study of fungal symbionts. Building and sharing of novel biodiversity informatics tools will be complemented by development and deposition of permanent fungal culture collections and extensive molecular sequence datasets.