Microbial ecology of fungal viruses and hypovirulence

真菌病毒日益被认为是影响其真菌宿主的毒力、流行率和生存的一组重要和多样化的感染源。许多真菌在农业、园艺和林业中引起经济上重要的植物疾病，这些宿主中的真菌病毒为改进疾病管理的分子和生物学策略提供了机会。本提案中提出的研究将检查真菌病毒在一类重要的植物病原体-菌核菌物种的生理和生态中的作用。生理学研究将确定降低植物病原体致病能力(例如低毒力)的真菌病毒，确定这些病毒如何干扰其真菌宿主的正常生长和发育，并调查为什么一些受感染的真菌表现出感染症状，而另一些则没有。生态学研究将确定真菌病毒在这些植物病原体自然发生的种群中的流行和分布，调查这些病毒传播到其他真菌物种的可能性，并研究这些病毒如何传播并影响它们在自然界中的真菌宿主。总而言之，这项研究将有助于评估真菌病毒对植物病害管理的分子或生物学策略。

Fungal viruses are increasingly being recognized as an important and diverse group of infectious agents that affect the virulence, prevalence, and survival of their fungal hosts. Many fungi cause economically-important plant diseases in agriculture, horticulture, and forestry, and fungal viruses in these hosts represent an opportunity for improved development of molecular and biological strategies of disease management.  Research proposed within this proposal will examine the role of fungal viruses in the physiology and ecology of an important group of plant pathogens, Sclerotinia species. Physiological studies will identify fungal viruses that reduce the ability of plant pathogens to cause disease (e.g. hypovirulence), determine how these viruses interfere with the normal growth and development of their fungal hosts, and investigate why some infected fungi display symptoms of infection and others do not.  Ecological studies will determine the prevalence and distribution of fungal viruses in naturally-occurring populations of these plant pathogens, investigate the potential for spread of these viruses to other fungal species, and examine how these viruses spread and influence their fungal hosts in nature. Collectively, this research will contribute to the assessment of fungal viruses for molecular or biological strategies of plant disease management.