PEET: Taxonomy and Co-evolution of Trichomycetes (Gut- Inhabiting Fungi) and their Chironomidae (Diptera) Hosts

9521811 Lichtwardt Fulgi和昆虫构成了大的，物种丰富的群体，很少有分类专家，尤其是水生或海洋环境中的生物群。这个富有想象力的PEET项目汇集了真菌和选定昆虫的专业知识，以研究一组有趣的毛霉菌真菌，它们在原始苍蝇（如摇蚊科）以及甲壳类动物和千足虫的肠道中共生。罗伯特·利希特瓦德博士是毛霉菌的权威;他的昆虫学同事伦纳德·费灵顿博士是摇蚊科苍蝇的专家。他们一起组建了一个由堪萨斯大学和伊利诺斯州皮奥里亚的美国农业部实验室的同事组成的团队，沿着还有外国同事，从事肠道真菌及其昆虫宿主的分类学、繁殖学和潜在共同进化的研究。一些真菌已知对蚊子幼虫是致命的，而另一些真菌最近被证明会侵入宿主昆虫的卵巢组织，在那里它们随后可以在雌性产卵行为期间作为“包囊”分散。在这样做的过程中，它们被怀疑会显著减少宿主昆虫（包括黑蝇）的生殖输出。这项研究将建立在博物馆收藏的生物和在广泛的实地工作过程中新收集的生物的基础上，并将传统的形态特征与DNA测序和蛋白质同工酶分析的新分子数据相结合。对研究生和博士后学生的培训强调实验室和博物馆工作以及实地收集，并包括参观美国农业部-皮奥里亚实验室进行真菌现代DNA测序培训。研究的所有方面的计算机化，包括标本数据库和交互式识别键的建立，将有助于及时传播堪萨斯大学万维网服务器的结果。

9521811 Lichtwardt Fulgi and insects constitute large, species-rich groups for which there are few taxonomic specialists, the more so for those organismal groups in aquatic or marine environments. This imaginative PEET project brings together expertise on both fungi and selected insects, to study an intriguing group of Trichomycete fungi that are symbiotic in the guts of primitive flies like Chironomidae and in crustaceans and millipedes. Dr. Robert Lichtwardt is an authority on Trichomycete fungi; his entomological colleague Dr. Leonard Ferrington is a specialist on Chironomidae flies. Together they have assembled a team of colleagues at the University of Kansas and at the USDA laboratory at Peoria, Illinois, along with foreign colleagues, to pursue research on the taxonomy, phylogeny, and potential coevolution of gut-dwelling fungi and their insect hosts. Some of the fungi are known to be lethal to mosquito larvae, while others have recently been shown to invade the ovarian tissue of the host insect, where they can subsequently disperse as "cysts" during egg-laying behavior by the female. In so doing, they are suspected of reducing significantly the reproductive output of the host insects, which include blackflies. The research will build upon museum collections of the organisms and new collections made in the course of extensive field work, and will integrate traditional morphological characters with new molecular data from DNA sequencing and protein isozyme analyses. Training of graduate and postdoctoral students emphasizes laboratory and museum work as well as field collecting, and includes visits to the USDA-Peoria laboratory for training in modern DNA sequencing of fungi. Computerization of all aspects of research, including specimen databasing and construction of interactive identification keys, will enhance the timely dissemination of results from the University of Kansas' World Wide Web server.