Evolution and conservation of biodiversity in forest and agricultural landscapes:insights from phylogeny and endophytic fungal microbiome of the forest tree genus Populus

我的研究计划的长期目标是通过对生态学和系统发育背景下相关数据的比较分析，更深入地了解森林和农业景观中生物多样性进化和保护的过程。森林的生物多样性（通过物种和群落的基因）在为我们提供清洁的水、空气、食物和住所等生态系统服务方面发挥着至关重要的作用。森林的主要结构组成部分林木的进化受到植物微生物相互作用的影响，内生真菌（一组生活在寄主植物组织内而不引起明显症状的真菌）正在成为塑造森林树木进化轨迹和森林景观整体生物多样性的重要参与者。在一个生态和形态多样化的林木群系统发育的框架内，分析内生真菌数据以及形态、生物地理、遗传和生态信息对于深入了解森林的进化过程至关重要。分布广泛、具有重要生态和经济意义的森林乔木属杨是这种方法的理想系统。因此，我建议对杨树的内生真菌微生物组和系统发育进行详细的研究，以了解森林景观生物多样性的演变。作为未来五年的短期目标，我和我的研究团队将I)基于几乎完整的核和叶绿体基因组的DNA序列重建杨树属的强大系统发育树，以了解该属的进化史，并为进化假设测试提供框架；ii)表征选定杨树种内生真菌群落的组成，结构和组装。iii)调查密切相关的杨树物种是否拥有相似的内生真菌微生物组，显示宿主（杨树）系统发育与内生真菌微生物组之间的相关性，通常称为“系统共生”；iv)调查分离的内生真菌是否表现出宿主偏好，作为“栖息地过滤”的证据。由此产生的系统发育树将允许对杨树属的进化趋势进行详细的检查，并以杨树为模型对与森林树木进化有关的假设进行严格的测试。提出的内生真菌组学工作代表了广泛的杨树物种（包括杂交种）根和地上部分真菌群落的详细特征的原始努力，并在系统发育和群落生态学框架内推断内生真菌群落的组装。该项目将培养至少14名植物系统学、进化学、微生物学和生物多样性保护领域的下一代研究专业人员，为满足加拿大的环境和社会经济需求做出贡献。

The long term goal of my research program is to gain a deeper understanding of the processes underlying the evolution and conservation of biodiversity in forest and agricultural landscapes through comparative analyses of relevant data in ecological and phylogenetic context. The biodiversity (genes through species and communities) in forests plays a vital role in providing us with ecosystem services such as clean water, air food and shelter. The evolution of forest trees, the major structural component of forests, is influenced by plant microbe interactions, and endophytic fungi (group of fungi living inside host plant tissues without causing visible symptoms) are emerging as important players in shaping the evolutionary trajectory of forest trees and overall biodiversity in forest landscapes. Analyzing endophytic fungal data along with morphological, biogeographical, genetic and ecological information within a framework of well resolved phylogeny of an ecologically and morphologically diverse group of forest trees is crucial for a thorough understanding of the evolutionary process in forests. The widely distributed, ecologically and economically important forest tree genus Populus is an ideal system for such an approach. Thus, I propose to conduct detailed studies of the endophytic fungal microbiome and phylogeny of Populus to gain insights into the evolution of biodiversity in forest landscapes. As short term objectives over the next five years, I along with my research team will i) Reconstruct robust phylogenetic tree(s) of the genus Populus based on DNA sequences of nearly complete nuclear and chloroplast genomes to understand the evolutionary history of the genus and provide a framework for evolutionary hypotheses testing, ii) Characterize the composition, structure and assembly of endophytic fungal communities in selected Populus species, iii) Investigate if closely related Populus species harbor similar endophytic fungal microbiome showing a correlation between host (Populus) phylogeny and endophytic fungal microbiomes commonly referred as “Phylosymbiosis” and iv) Investigate if isolated endophytic fungi show host preference as an evidence for “habitat filtering”. The resulting phylogenetic trees will allow detailed examination of evolutionary trends within the genus Populus, and rigorous testing of hypotheses related to the evolution of forest trees using Populus as a model. The proposed endophytic mycobiomics work represents an original effort of detailed characterization of fungal communities in both root and aerial parts of a wide range of Populus species including hybrids and infers assembly of endophytic fungal communities within a phylogenetic and community ecology framework. This program will provide an opportunity to train at least 14 next generation research professionals in the areas of plant systematics, evolution, microbiomics and biodiversity conservation, contributing to fulfil environmental and socioeconomic needs of Canada.