Real time PCR setection for fungal endophytes

新伤寒杆菌属的微型真菌在北美的景观中随处可见。它们生活在大约30%的禾本科(禾本科)物种的内部，最重要的是，它们生活在最常见的牧草和草坪草物种中。这些物种对发现它们的生物群落有很大的生态影响，它们的大多数草宿主被认为是北美大部分地区的入侵物种。直到最近，对这些草-真菌相互作用的影响的研究一直受到限制，因为现有的方法只检测这些真菌的存在或不存在，而不是量化它们的相对丰度。这种情况在三年前发生了变化，当时我和我的同事们证明了实时(定量)聚合酶链式反应(QPCR)可以用来快速准确地量化这些真菌感染。这项提案寻求资金，在圭尔夫大学建立一个用于研究和研究生培训的实时聚合酶链式反应设施，用于植物-真菌相互作用研究。

Micro-fungi of the genus Neotyphodium are ubiquitous on the landscape of North America. They live inside of approximately 30% of all species in the grass family (Poaceae), and most importantly within the most common species of pasture and turf grasses. These species have large ecological impacts on the biological communities in which they are found, and most of their grass hosts are considered to be invasive species throughout much of their North American ranges. Studying the impacts of these grass-fungi interactions has been limited as, until recently, methods only existed to detect the presence or absence of these fungi, not to quantify their relative abundances. That changed three years ago when my collaborators and I demonstrated that real time (quantitatve) polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) could be used to quickly and accurately quantify these fungal infections. This proposal seeks funding to establish a real time PCR facility for research and graduate student training at the University of Guelph, for use in plant-fungi interaction studies.