Collaborative Research: The Zygomycetes Genealogy of Life (ZyGoLife)- the conundrum of Kingdom Fungi

合作研究：接合菌生命谱系（ZyGoLife）——真菌王国的难题

• 批准号: 1441677
• 负责人: Timothy James
• 金额: $ 69.04万
• 依托单位: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-01-01 至 2019-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1441677&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Zygomycetes; Genealogy; Life

Fungi comprise one of the most successful groups of life on Earth. They inhabit most of the world's environments, where they perform numerous functions (e.g., nutrient cycling, foundations of food webs, etc.) that are central to healthy ecosystems. Importantly, fungi interact with all other forms of life, including plants, animals and bacteria -- in associations that range from beneficial to antagonistic. Zygomycete fungi, the focus of this research project, are an ancient group in which most of the morphological and ecological traits associated with Kingdom Fungi first arose, but their evolutionary history and ecological associations have not yet been well resolved. This project will reconstruct the genealogical relationships of this earliest branch in fungal evolutionary history, resolve the origins of symbiotic relationships between plants and zygomycetes, reveal how complex body plans evolved in the group, elucidate mechanisms of mating genetics between organisms with complex and differing life cycles, and develop genomic barcodes to facilitate identification of unknown fungi. The results of this research will contribute to many scientific disciplines and to society. Expanding and maintaining expertise on these fungi is critical for the field of biology, human health and productivity, and safe food production. This project includes training of the next generation of mycologists, dissemination of information on basic fungal biology, development of teaching resources, expansion of biological database and web resources, development of research materials including strain cultures and genomes for the wider scientific community, and broadening of participation of underrepresented groups in STEM disciplines.Zygomycetes are filamentous fungi that lack flagella and that produce simple but defined reproductive structures. An initial analysis of zygomycete genomes support the hypothesis that the group is a pivotal transition point between certain flagellated Fungi and their specific life histories, and what became the dominant eukaryotic terrestrial clade of Fungi (the fleshy fungi, e.g., mushrooms). Because the zygomycetes are the first terrestrial fungi that exhibit fruiting bodies, understanding how these structures evolved will provide a basis for understanding the origins of complex morphogenesis (e.g., multicellularity) in the Fungi, as well as the evolution of complex life histories. Zygomycetes also display a diversity of ecological relationships with plants (mycorrhizae), animals (pathogens) and bacteria (endosymbionts). Resolving the phylogenetic origins of these interactions will provide an evolutionary framework for elucidating molecular and biochemical mechanisms that govern these interactions, and in doing so, will have direct impacts on research into natural and managed ecosystems and human welfare. This research will also refine molecular environmental sampling techniques, resulting in a more accurate census of zygomycete biodiversity, especially in soil ecosystems. By gathering orders of magnitude more genome-scale data and integrating it with biochemical, morphological, subcellular, and fossil data layers, this elusive region of the fungal genealogy of life will be illuminated and will provide a foundation for broad scale biological research.

真菌是地球上最成功的生命群体之一。它们居住在世界上大多数环境中，在那里它们执行许多功能（例如，营养循环、食物网的基础等）是健康生态系统的核心。重要的是，真菌与所有其他形式的生命相互作用，包括植物，动物和细菌-从有益到拮抗的协会。接合菌是一个古老的类群，大多数与真菌界相关的形态和生态特征最早出现在接合菌中，但它们的进化历史和生态关联尚未得到很好的解决。该项目将重建真菌进化史上最早的分支的系谱关系，解决植物和真菌之间共生关系的起源，揭示复杂的身体计划如何在该组中进化，阐明具有复杂和不同生命周期的生物之间的交配遗传机制，并开发基因组条形码以促进未知真菌的鉴定。这项研究的成果将有助于许多科学学科和社会。扩大和保持对这些真菌的专业知识对于生物学，人类健康和生产力以及安全食品生产领域至关重要。该项目包括培训下一代真菌学家，传播基础真菌生物学信息，开发教学资源，扩大生物数据库和网络资源，为更广泛的科学界开发包括菌株培养和基因组在内的研究材料，接合菌是一种丝状真菌，缺乏鞭毛，能产生简单但明确的生殖结构。对放线菌基因组的初步分析支持这样一种假设，即该类群是某些有鞭毛的真菌与其特定生活史之间的关键过渡点，并且成为真菌的主要真核陆生分支（肉质真菌，例如，蘑菇）。 因为放线菌是第一个展示子实体的陆地真菌，所以了解这些结构是如何进化的将为了解复杂形态发生的起源提供基础（例如，多细胞）的真菌，以及复杂的生活史的进化。 接合菌还显示出与植物（真菌）、动物（病原体）和细菌（内共生体）的多种生态关系。解决这些相互作用的系统发育起源将提供一个进化框架，阐明管理这些相互作用的分子和生化机制，并在这样做，将对自然和管理的生态系统和人类福利的研究产生直接影响。 这项研究还将完善分子环境采样技术，从而更准确地普查放线菌生物多样性，特别是在土壤生态系统中。通过收集更多数量级的基因组规模数据，并将其与生物化学，形态学，亚细胞和化石数据层相结合，这个难以捉摸的生命真菌谱系区域将被照亮，并将为大规模生物研究提供基础。