Collaborative Research: Filling the largest void of the fungal genealogy of life (the Pezizomycotina) and integrating symbiotic, environmental and physiological data layers

植物和真菌在自然界中是相互依赖的，通过相互作用对双方都有利（互利共生，真菌分解死亡的植物材料）或对一方有害（寄生）。因此，真菌和植物生物学不能完全理解，而不研究他们的共生相互作用的背景下。随着新的DNA测序技术的出现，人们越来越清楚地认识到，10万种已知的真菌只是自然界中估计的510万种真菌中的一小部分。令人惊讶的是，这种未知的真菌多样性的最大部分似乎隐藏在植物和地衣的健康叶片中，作为内生真菌和内生地衣真菌。已知内生菌保护植物免受病原体的侵害，并增强其对干旱和高温等非生物胁迫的抗性。大多数这些高度多样性的内生真菌和内生地衣真菌被分类在一组丝状子囊菌门真菌称为盘菌亚门。本研究的主要目的是重建盘菌亚门的亲缘关系，并将这一进化框架与丰富多样的生物数据集联系起来。该研究将通过各种推广活动，高中生参与研究，培训五个州的初级科学家，以及开发具有潜在应用的工具来研究生命科学中物种相互作用的演变。加快发现这些隐藏的真菌也有望提供一个丰富的来源，新的药物和生物防治产品的次级化合物。本研究的目的是填补最大的真菌谱系的生命（盘菌亚门）和集成不同的数据层的新兴树作为一种手段，以了解真菌植物共生的进化，生态和生理。培养依赖和独立的方法将产生最大的内生和内生地衣真菌的样本，到目前为止，针对不同的植物，地衣，大型藻类，并共同发生的微藻和蓝藻在陆地，水生和海洋环境，重点是生物丰富，但研究不足的生物气候区。高效的收集和分析管道将使这些新共生真菌的系统发育数据快速整合到生命的真菌谱系中，而新的生物多样性信息学工具将整合现有的多位点和多基因组框架与下一代测序获得的短序列读数。由此产生的进化树，大大丰富了目前未知的生物多样性的系统采样，将整合与主机和营养谱在三个数据层（共生系统发育，生态系统发育，和生理系统发育），使第一次新的见解从地理数据，非生物和生物因素，和生理特征，使互惠互利的相互作用与植物上的大多数社区依赖。

Plants and fungi are interdependently connected in nature, through interactions that are beneficial to both (mutualism, and decomposition of dead plant material by fungi) or detrimental to one partner (parasitism). Therefore, fungal and plant biology cannot be fully understood without studying them within the context of their symbiotic interactions. With the advent of new DNA sequencing technologies, it is becoming clear that the 100,000 known species of fungi represent only a tiny fraction of the estimated 5.1 million species of fungi present in nature. Amazingly, the largest fraction of this unknown fungal diversity seems to be hidden in healthy leaves of plants and lichens, as endophytic and endolichenic fungi. Endophytes are known to protect plants from pathogens, and enhance their resistance to abiotic stresses such as droughts and high temperatures. Most of these hyperdiverse endophytic and endolichenic fungi are classified within a group of filamentous Ascomycota fungi called the Pezizomycotina. The main aims of this research are to reconstruct a phylogeny (genealogical relationships) for the Pezizomycotina and link this evolutionary framework with a rich and diverse set of organismal data. The research will be complemented by diverse outreach activities, engagement of high school students in research, training of junior scientists in five states, and development of tools with potential applications for studying the evolution of species interactions across the life sciences. Accelerating the discovery of these hidden fungi also promises to provide a rich source of secondary compounds for new pharmaceutical and biocontrol products.The objectives of this study are to fill the largest phylogenetic void in the fungal genealogy of life (the Pezizomycotina) and integrate diverse data layers with the emergent tree as a means to understand the evolution, ecology, and physiology of fungal-plant symbioses. Culture-dependent and independent methods will generate the largest sample of endophytic and endolichenic fungi to date, targeting diverse plants, lichens, macroalgae, and co-occurring microalgae and cyanobacteria in terrestrial, aquatic, and marine environments, with a focus on biotically rich but understudied bioclimatic zones. Efficient collecting and analytical pipelines will enable rapid integration of phylogenetic data from these new symbiotic fungi into the fungal genealogy of life, while novel biodiversity informatics tools will integrate existing multi-locus and phylogenomic frameworks with short sequence reads obtained with next-generation sequencing. Resulting evolutionary trees, greatly enriched by systematic sampling of currently unknown biodiversity, will be integrated with host and trophic spectra in three data layers (symbio-phylogenetic, eco-phylogenetic, and physio-phylogenetic), enabling for the first time novel insights from geographic data, abiotic and biotic factors, and the physiological traits that enable mutualistic interactions with plants on which most communities depend.