EAPSI: Beetle-fungus fidelity: an investigation into how ambrosia beetles maintain their fungal symbionts

文心兰甲虫是许多森林中无害的组成部分，它们在死亡或垂死的树木中生长和维护共生真菌花园。对于一些被意外引入远离原生活动范围的地区的文昌甲虫来说，这种习惯已经改变了。非本土的仙人掌甲虫可以攻击健康的树木，导致树木死亡，因为它们携带的真菌。例如，美国东南部的红柏树现在正处于灭绝的道路上，因为来自亚洲的红柏树甲虫及其相关真菌的到来。拟议的项目将调查文昌甲虫如何维持它们与真菌的关系，真菌通常是导致树木死亡的原因。甲虫和真菌将与西双版纳热带植物园的王波博士合作收集，西双版纳热带植物园位于中国南部，该地区拥有地球上一些种类最多的文心虫。这项研究产生的结果将用于预测哪些非本地甲虫可能携带致死树木的真菌，以及这些真菌是否可能与其他甲虫物种共享。非土生土长的瘟疫甲虫极大地威胁着世界各地的森林生态系统。目前尚不清楚外来甲虫与本土甲虫分享共生植物病原真菌的频率，以及甲虫对特定真菌伙伴的忠诚度。该项目将确定如何通过高通量和基于培养的分析来维持仙人掌的共生关系，这些真菌群落来自本土和外来领土上不同的仙人掌甲虫支系。了解这些关系将有助于预测树木病原体传播到不同甲虫物种的可能性，这是在这些复合体被引入非本土地区时进行知情管理的关键。该NSF EAPSI奖是与中国科技部合作资助的。

Ambrosia beetles are a harmless component of many forests where they grow and maintain gardens of symbiotic fungi inside dead or dying trees. This habit has changed for some ambrosia beetles that have been accidentally introduced into regions that are distant from their native range. Non-native ambrosia beetles can attack healthy trees, causing tree death with the fungi they carry. For example, redbay trees in the southeast United States now lie on a path to extinction since the arrival of the redbay ambrosia beetle and its associated fungus from Asia. The proposed project will investigate how ambrosia beetles maintain their relationship with fungi, which are often the causal agent in tree death. Beetles and fungi will be collected in collaboration with Dr. Wang Bo of the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Gardens in southern China, a region which hosts some of the largest diversity of ambrosia beetles on earth. Results generated from this study will be used to predict which non-native beetles may be carrying tree-killing fungi and whether those fungi may be shared with other beetle species. Pestiferous, non-native ambrosia beetles greatly threaten forest ecosystems across the world. It's currently unknown how frequently exotic beetles may share their symbiotic plant pathogenic fungi with native beetles, and how faithful the beetles are to specific fungal partners. This project will determine how the ambrosia symbiosis is maintained through high-throughput and culture-based analyses of the fungal communities from diverse ambrosia beetle clades in both native and exotic territories. Understanding these relationships will allow for predictions about the probability of tree-pathogens spreading to different beetle species, which is key for informed management of these complexes as they are introduced to non-native regions. This NSF EAPSI award is funded in collaboration with the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology.