DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Does hosting arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in modular structures facilitate discrimination against cheaters?

论文研究：在模块化结构中容纳丛枝菌根真菌是否会促进对作弊者的歧视？

• 批准号: 1405347
• 负责人: James Bever
• 金额: $ 1.94万
• 依托单位: Indiana University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-09-01 至 2016-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1405347&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: DISSERTATION; RESEARCH; Does; hosting; arbuscular

The majority of terrestrial plant species depend on symbiotic fungi that live inside their roots ("mycorrhizal fungi") to both meet their mineral nutrient demands and increase their defenses against pests and disease. However, many strains of fast-growing mycorrhizal fungi have evolved to exploit their hosts without providing any of these services, leaving plants with stunted growth and increased susceptibility to environmental stress. Brian Steidinger and James Bever of Indiana University (IU) seek to identify how plants can defend themselves against "cheater" fungi. The researchers enhance the impact of their scientific work through their involvement in public and minority outreach programs. Steidinger will integrate under-represented minorities in the sciences into his work at IU through the James Holland Summer Research Initiative (SRI). The SRI program brings both high school and freshmen college students to IU to participate in independent research. Steidinger will train SRI students how to measure mycorrhizal fungi and identify fungal cheaters, providing them with hands-on experience working in a lab setting. Further, Steidinger will recruit IU undergraduates to assist with the experimental and data analysis portions of the proposed research, helping them build skills they can apply towards independent thesis work. This research will enhance ongoing research by this team by providing a means to directly test model predictions using molecular techniques, measure the impact of AMF on plant nutrition, and expand an ongoing experiment to compare podocarps to plants that do not form nodulated roots. In addition, the researchers will test model predictions in a comparative study of AMF composition in a New Zealand podocarp forest. To achieve this, they created a theoretical model that identified features of a host plant that should increase their ability to spatially segregate and terminate resource investment into cheater strains. Second, they developed an experimental system of beneficial and cheater fungi to determine the effectiveness of defenses in different plant hosts. Finally, they collected roots from a forest system in order to determine if the defenses in their experimental system are effective against cheater fungi in the field. Steidinger and Bever hope to discover not only how plants defend themselves against exploitative fungi, but to shed light on common features of plant defenses that are likely to be applicable to a variety of mutualisms.

大多数陆地植物物种都取决于生活在其根部（“菌根真菌”）内的共生真菌，都可以满足其矿物质营养需求，并增加了针对害虫和疾病的防御能力。但是，许多快速生长的菌根真菌已经发展起来，不提供任何这些服务，使植物发育不良，对环境压力的敏感性增加。印第安纳大学（IU）的Brian Steidinger和James Bever试图确定植物如何防御“作弊者”真菌。研究人员通过参与公共和少数民族外展计划来增强其科学工作的影响。 Steidinger将通过James Holland Summer Research Iniatiative（SRI）将科学中代表不足的少数民族纳入他的工作。 SRI计划将高中和新生大学生带到IU参加独立研究。 Steidinger将培训SRI学生如何测量菌根真菌并确定真菌作弊者，从而为他们提供在实验室环境中工作的动手经验。此外，Steidinger将招募IU大学生，以协助拟议研究的实验和数据分析部分，以帮助他们建立可以应用于独立论文工作的技能。这项研究将通过提供一种使用分子技术直接测试模型预测的方法来增强该团队正在进行的研究，测量AMF对植物营养的影响，并扩大正在进行的实验，以将Podocarps与不形成结节根的植物进行比较。此外，研究人员将在新西兰Podocarp森林中AMF组成的比较研究中测试模型预测。为了实现这一目标，他们创建了一个理论模型，该模型确定了宿主工厂的特征，该特征应提高其空间隔离和终止资源投资到作弊者菌株中的能力。其次，他们开发了一种有益和骗子真菌的实验系统，以确定防御在不同植物宿主中的有效性。最后，他们从森林系统中收集根部，以确定其实验系统中的防御能力是否有效地抵抗现场的作弊真菌。 Steidinger和Bever希望不仅希望发现植物如何防御剥削性真菌，还可以阐明植物防御的共同特征，这些植物防御能力可能适用于各种互助。