CSBR: Ownership Transfer of University of Maine Chytrid Fungal Collection to University of Michigan

CSBR：缅因大学 Chytrid 真菌收藏的所有权转让给密歇根大学

• 批准号: 1756202
• 负责人: Timothy James
• 金额: $ 10.76万
• 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: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-04-01 至 2020-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1756202&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CSBR; Ownership; Transfer; University; Maine

This project will secure an endangered collection of approximately 500 diverse, living strains of a fungal group known as chytrids. As the world's largest collection of chytrids, it serves as a resource to the research community by providing cultures to biologists in both academic and industrial settings, resulting in biological insights found in over 200 published articles. Although these microscopic fungi reproduce with a swimming spore they occur in soils as well as in fresh and saline waters; they fill important ecological roles as parasites and also by degrading substrates such as pollen and other plant material, insect exoskeletons, hair, etc. Chytrids are notorious for their role in the global decline of amphibians; the collection contains over 180 strains of the amphibian pathogen from around the world. This collection was developed and maintained by Joyce Longcore at the University of Maine without institutional support for more than 25 years. To safeguard the chytrid collection, it will be moved to the University of Michigan's recently remodeled Research Museums Complex where it will be stored in a state-of-the-art cryopreservation facility and managed by the University's Herbarium unit. The collection will be a resource for the scientific community involved in research on chytrids and their function in terrestrial and aquatic systems.Chytrid fungi require special growth and maintenance conditions, because they are aquatic fungi that reproduce with flagellated, wall-less zoospores. Most of the University of Maine collection is cryopreserved, making inter-institutional transfer in a frozen state possible, however, approximately 12% of the collection is routinely transferred in liquid cultures, because it has not been amendable to freezing. The first goal of the project is to move the collection in Maine to the Research Museums Complex in Ann Arbor where fungal strains will be stored in liquid nitrogen freezers. Cryopreservation in the vapor of liquid nitrogen stabilizes samples at -193 degrees Celsius; because inadvertent exposure to temperatures above -80 affects the viability of frozen cultures, storage in liquid nitrogen is safer than storage in typical ultralow freezers with electrical compressors. A second goal of this project is to develop methods to freeze and secure the remaining 12% of strains that have been resistant to cryopreservation. To verify taxonomic assignments of the culture collection and to better characterize its contents, DNA barcoding will be performed by sequencing and making accessible the 18S and ITS ribosomal RNA gene regions. Finally, this project will transform the collection into a public resource by making additional data about the strains accessible online and improving the distribution and maintenance of the cultures.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该项目将保护一种名为chytrids的真菌群的大约500个不同的活菌株的濒危集合。作为世界上最大的羊肚菌集合，它为研究界提供了一种资源，为学术和工业环境中的生物学家提供了培养，从而在200多篇已发表的文章中找到了生物学见解。虽然这些微小的真菌通过游动的孢子繁殖，但它们存在于土壤以及淡水和咸水中；它们作为寄生虫发挥着重要的生态作用，还通过降解底物如花粉和其他植物材料、昆虫外骨骼、毛发等发挥重要的生态作用。这个收藏是由缅因州大学的Joyce Longcore在没有机构支持的情况下开发和维护了25年以上。为了保护菊苣收藏品，它将被转移到密歇根大学最近改建的研究博物馆综合体，在那里它将被储存在最先进的冷冻保存设施中，并由大学的植物标本室管理。这些藏品将为参与研究菊苣及其在陆地和水生系统中的功能的科学界提供资源。菊属真菌需要特殊的生长和维护条件，因为它们是水生真菌，具有鞭毛，无壁游动孢子繁殖。缅因州大学的大部分藏品都是超低温保存的，这使得冷冻状态下的机构间转移成为可能，然而，大约12%的藏品通常是在液体培养中转移的，因为它还不能被冷冻。该项目的第一个目标是将缅因州的藏品转移到安娜堡的研究博物馆综合体，在那里真菌菌株将被储存在液氮冷冻箱中。在液氮蒸气中的超低温保存可以将样品稳定在-193摄氏度；由于无意中暴露在-80℃以上会影响冷冻培养物的生存能力，因此在液氮中存储比在典型的带有电动压缩机的超低冰柜中存储更安全。该项目的第二个目标是开发方法来冷冻和保护剩余的12%耐低温保存的菌株。为了验证培养物集合的分类分配并更好地描述其内容物，将进行DNA条形码，方法是对18S及其核糖体RNA基因区域进行测序并使其可访问。最后，该项目将通过在线提供关于菌株的更多数据并改进培养的分布和维护，将收集的数据转化为公共资源。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。