Resolving the phylogeny and uncovering drivers of speciation in the evolutionary radiation of porcini mushrooms (Boletaceae)

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The process by which new species are created is central to the question of how life evolves and understanding it provides both an explanation for our existence and enables better predictive power to anticipate how life will respond to future change. This predictability allows us to better conserve and protect biodiversity, helping society achieve a sustainable future. One pattern that is common across the evolutionary Tree of Life is rapid bursts of species creation, a phenomenon known as an evolutionary radiation. While such radiations are well-documented for plants and animals, they are poorly known in Fungi, one of the most diverse branches of life. To increase our understanding of how species evolve in the Fungi, this project is using a top-down and bottom-up approach to understand how genetic changes within a species contributes to the rapid development of new groups. The project will focus on the porcini mushrooms, a diverse, globally distributed, economically valuable, and ecologically important family of fungi that support woody plant health through mutualistic symbiosis. Through diverse outreach activities, this project will address educational inequalities by engaging scientifically underserved groups in scientific mentorships of middle school students, a public engagement training program for project scientists, educational workshops for incarcerated adults and youth, and dissemination of the project’s science in diverse media in multiple languages.This research leverages large-scale high-throughput sequencing in a comprehensive approach to resolve the phylogeny and uncover the drivers of species divergence within an enigmatic example of well-known and important evolutionary radiation of Fungi. This project will populate a phylogenomic dataset with whole genome sequences of 500 species that represent the geographic, taxonomic, and morphological diversity of porcini mushrooms by taking advantage of the wealth of recently preserved collections in museums around the world. Seven-hundred and two single copy gene families will be identified from whole genome shotgun sequencing and analyzed using supermatrix and summary coalescent approaches to generate a highly supported phylogeny. This phylogeny will be used to develop a modern, stable taxonomy and to reconstruct the biogeography of the family. To gain insight into the genetics of species divergence that gave rise to this radiation, an additional 600 individuals of the widespread Boletus edulis species complex will be genotyped for a genomic dataset that will provide fine-scale resolution at the population level. Single nucleotide polymorphisms will be analyzed to infer the population structure, demographic history, and patterns of ecological speciation. Knowledge gained will in turn be examined across the phylogeny to reciprocally illuminate the genetic factors that gave rise to and result from an evolutionary radiation.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.