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

该项目将确保一个濒危的收集约500种不同的，活的菌株的真菌群称为壶菌。 作为世界上最大的壶菌群，它通过向学术和工业环境中的生物学家提供培养物来为研究界提供资源，从而在200多篇已发表的文章中发现生物学见解。 尽管这些微小的真菌以游动的孢子繁殖，但它们存在于土壤以及淡水和盐水沃茨中;它们作为寄生虫以及通过降解诸如花粉和其他植物材料、昆虫外骨骼、毛发等基质来发挥重要的生态作用。收集了来自世界各地的180多种两栖类病原体。 这个收藏是由缅因州大学的乔伊斯·朗科在没有机构支持的情况下开发和维护的，超过25年。 为了保护壶菌的收藏，它将被转移到密歇根大学最近改造的研究博物馆综合大楼，在那里它将被储存在一个最先进的冷冻保存设施中，并由大学的植物标本室管理。这些标本将成为科学界研究壶菌及其在陆地和水生系统中功能的资源。壶菌真菌需要特殊的生长和维护条件，因为它们是水生真菌，用有鞭毛的无壁游动孢子繁殖。缅因州大学的大部分藏品都是冷冻保存的，这使得在冷冻状态下的机构间转移成为可能，然而，大约12%的藏品是在液体培养物中常规转移的，因为它不能冷冻。该项目的第一个目标是将缅因州的收藏品转移到安阿伯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机中。 液氮蒸气中的冷冻保存使样品在-193摄氏度下稳定;由于无意中暴露于-80以上的温度会影响冷冻培养物的活力，因此在液氮中储存比在带有电动压缩机的典型超低温冷冻机中储存更安全。 该项目的第二个目标是开发冷冻和保护剩余的12%耐低温保存的菌株的方法。 为了验证培养物收集的分类学分配并更好地表征其内容物，将通过测序进行DNA条形码化，并使18 S和ITS核糖体RNA基因区域可访问。 最后，该项目将通过在线获取有关菌株的额外数据并改善培养物的分发和维护，将收集的菌株转化为公共资源。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.