Collaborative Research: PurSUit: A phylogenetic, genomic, and functional framework for the environmentally diverse and poorly characterized fungal class, Leotiomycete

在研究人员探索过的所有环境中都可以发现利多菌属的真菌。它们在生态上高度多样化，包括经济上重要的致病真菌，如侵袭植物的白粉病和导致蝙蝠白鼻综合征的真菌。尽管真菌是一个庞大而多样的群体，但人们对这一群体的全球分布、它们的生态作用以及这些真菌之间的关系知之甚少。本项目将在非洲大陆和中美洲开展首次大规模的利多菌属真菌考察，为研究利多菌属生态和功能多样性的演变提供机会。这一努力反过来又将通过确定导致新型传染病出现的遗传和环境条件，提供重大的社会效益。研究人员开始了解微生物群落的组成和功能如何随着时间的推移，在不同的环境和不断变化的气候条件下发生变化。然而，当我们对微生物生物多样性的认识不完整时，对这些结果的解释就会受到阻碍。为了理解它们的功能角色，以及它们在特定环境中存在或不存在的后果，需要对进化关系进行准确的理解。通过这个项目，研究人员将通过在世界上采样不足的地区收集样本，扩大对利多菌多样性的了解，从而描述几十个新物种。接下来，本项目将描述小型，不可培养或难以培养但环境丰富的利多菌的多样性。那些所谓的“暗类群”将通过使用环境样本的单细胞基因组学来描述，同时使用培养技术分离稀有或生长缓慢的微生物。它们的功能作用也将通过RNA转录序列来阐明。最后，利用全基因组，本项目将生成一个新的类水平的系统发育框架。该项目将不可避免地从纯培养物或通过实地工作收集的新鲜子实体中发现目前未被代表的目、科和属，进一步扩大其科学影响。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

Fungi in the group Leotiomycetes are found in all environments where researchers have explored. They are ecologically highly diverse, including economically important disease-causing fungi such as the powdery mildews that attack plants and the fungus that causes White Nose Syndrome in bats. Despite being a large and diverse group of fungi, little is known of the global distribution of this group, their ecological roles, or how these fungi are related to one another. This project will conduct the first large scale expeditions to describe Leotiomycetes fungi on the African continent and in Central America, providing the opportunity to study the evolution of ecological and functional diversity of Leotiomycetes. This effort in turn will provide significant societal benefit by identifying genetic and environmental circumstances that lead to the emergence of novel infectious diseases.Researchers are beginning to understand how microbial community composition and function shift over time, across different environments, and across changing climatic conditions. However, interpretation of these results is impeded when our knowledge of the biodiversity of microbes is incomplete. An accurate understanding of evolutionary relationships is needed to understand their functional roles, and the consequences of their presence or absence in particular environments. Through this project the researchers will expand knowledge of Leotiomycetes diversity beyond Europe by collecting samples in under-sampled regions of the world, resulting in the description of dozens of new species. Next, this project will describe the diversity of small, unculturable or difficult to culture but environmentally abundant members of Leotiomycetes. Those so called “dark taxa” will be described by using single-cell genomics of environmental samples, in parallel with culturing techniques to isolate rare or slow-growing microbes. Their functional roles will also be elucidated using RNA transcript sequencing. Finally, using whole genomes, this project will generate a new class-level phylogenetic framework. This project will, inevitably, detect currently unrepresented orders, families, and genera from either pure cultures or from fresh fruiting bodies collected through field work, further broadening its scientific impact.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.