Dimensions US-South Africa: Unravelling the influence of endosymbiotic bacteria on the biodiversity of Mucoromycota fungi

这项合作工作的目标是研究生活在真菌细胞内的细菌如何促进毛霉门真菌的生态和进化动力学。毛霉门是最不了解的，但生态和经济上重要的真菌类群之一。它们包括只能与植物共生的真菌，以及存在于植物根系中的分解者和真菌。球囊霉亚门是待研究的真菌类群之一，在可持续农业中提供了一种有前途的矿物肥料替代品。毛霉亚门是农作物采后腐败的主要病原菌。被孢霉亚门作为多不饱和脂肪酸的生产者具有商业用途。该项目将揭示毛霉门群落如何组装和进化，更好地为这些真菌的实际应用提供信息。学生参与者将接受研究进化，真菌生物学，微生物学和社区生态学的方法培训，并熟悉各种现代实验室方法和计算分析的工具。此外，由于该项目的国际性质，美国的参与者将与南非的研究人员进行互动。与其他真菌不同，毛霉门通常含有古老且高度共同进化的内共生细菌（EB）。对包括EB在内的塑造毛霉门全球多样性的因素的理解是有限的。为了填补这一知识空白，毛霉门将从美国和南非的两个生物群落（地中海森林、林地灌丛和荒漠旱生灌木）中取样。一个文化独立的方法来分类识别，结合社区生态学的分析方法，将被用来测试假设EB和地质历史的综合作用，以及扩散，环境和生物过滤在确定毛霉门的生物多样性的背景下，更广泛的社区真菌土壤分解菌和根内生菌/互利共生。将采用依赖培养的方法来鉴定与毛霉门相关的新EB，研究这些共生体中出现的进化创新，并发现它们对毛霉门社区结构和分类多样化的影响。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

The goal of this collaborative work is to investigate how bacteria living inside of fungal cells contribute to ecological and evolutionary dynamics of Mucoromycota fungi. Mucoromycota are one of the least understood, yet ecologically and economically important groups of fungi. They include fungi that can only live in conjunction with plant associates, as well as decomposers and fungi that exist within plant root systems. Glomeromycotina, one of the fungal groups to be studied, offers a promising alternative to mineral fertilizers in sustainable agriculture. Mucoromycotina are chief agents of crop post-harvest spoilage. Mortiellomycotina have commercial utility as producers of polyunsaturated fatty acids. The project will unravel how Mucoromycota communities assemble and evolve, better informing practical applications for these fungi. Student participants will be trained in methods to study evolution, fungal biology, microbiology, and community ecology as well as acquainted with tools of diverse modern lab methods and computation analyses. In addition, because of the international nature of the project, the US participants will interact with researchers in South Africa.Unlike other fungi, Mucoromycota commonly harbor ancient and highly coevolved endosymbiotic bacteria (EB). The understanding of factors, including EB, that shape global diversity of Mucoromycota is limited. To fill this knowledge gap, Mucoromycota will be sampled from two biomes (Mediterranean Forests, Woodlands & Scrub and Deserts & Xeric Shrublands) across the U.S. and South Africa. A culture-independent approach to taxon identification, combined with analytical methods of community ecology, will be used to test hypotheses concerning the combined roles of EB and geological history as well as dispersal, environmental and biotic filtering in determining the biodiversity of Mucoromycota within the context of broader communities of fungal soil decomposers and root endophytes/mutualists. Culture-dependent methods will be employed to identify novel EB associated with Mucoromycota, examine evolutionary innovations emerging from these symbioses, and discover their impact on Mucoromycota community structuring and taxonomic diversification.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.