Discovery and analysis of Aphelidea and Rozella species of the Cryptomycota phylum

隐孢子门是最近发现的一门生物体，寄生在藻类和真菌宿主上。正如第一次描述的那样，隐霉菌只包括两种已知形态的生物和40多种仅从淡水、沉积物和土壤中收集的DNA序列中已知的其他生物，这表明这个神秘的群体可能与整个王国的真菌一样具有遗传多样性。新的分子技术有能力识别环境中的新生物体，但将DNA数据与物理生物体联系起来仍然是一个挑战。该项目通过分离、培养以及这些看似无处不在但鲜为人知的生物的结构和分子特征，为这些环境分子标记提供了一个面孔。已知的生物具有真菌和原生生物的特征，该项目将解决这些寄生虫是真菌还是原生生物的有趣问题。由于隐孢子虫最近已被确定为生产生物燃料、食品和药品的商业藻类的主要害虫，因此这项研究对制定这些行业的保护战略具有重要意义。随着对隐孢子菌多样性的更多了解，可以探索它们对宿主种群、食物网和自然界生命可持续性的环境影响。该项目将培训研究生和本科生收集、观察和描述隐孢子菌的方法，提供下一代专家。本项目旨在发现和培养已描述的隐霉菌新种，并对它们的发育、超微结构和分子特征进行表征。隐孢子菌的藻类和游动孢子真菌宿主将从美国东部和南部的不同栖息地收集。据推测，隐孢子目的活动细胞具有细胞器排列的超微结构模式，反映了进化关系。对7个基因的分析将揭示系统发育关系，并可以绘制寄主、营养和超微结构特征状态进化的图谱，从而产生关于早期真菌进化和隐孢子目与原生生物和动物的分化的假说。一个隐菌门网站将包括图像、分类摘要、互动识别密钥以及超微结构和分子特征在系统发育分析中的应用，使这一组更容易为未来的研究服务。这项研究具有变革性，因为隐孢子菌的培养将可供社区进行更广泛的研究。生物学专业的本科生将获得真实的研究经验，实地收集寄主生物，筛选隐孢子虫内寄生虫的存在，并对基因序列进行表征，激发学生对生物多样性和保护研究事业的兴趣。

The Cryptomycota is a recently discovered phylum of organisms that parasitize algae and fungi hosts. As first described, the Cryptomycota included only two organisms of known morphologies and over 40 other organisms known only from DNA sequences collected from freshwater, sediments and soils, which suggested that this enigmatic group might be genetically as diverse as the whole Kingdom Fungi. New molecular techniques have the power to identify novel organisms such as these in the environment but the challenge to link the DNA data with physical organisms remains. This project puts a face on these environmental molecular markers with the isolation, culture and structural and molecular characterization of these seemingly ubiquitous, but poorly known, organisms. The known organisms have characteristics of fungi and protists and the project will resolve the intriguing question whether these parasites are fungi or protists. Because Cryptomycota have recently been identified as primary pests of commercially grown algae for production of biofuel, food and pharmaceuticals, this research is important to development of protection strategies for these industries. With greater knowledge of Cryptomycota diversity, their environmental impacts on host populations, food webs, and sustainability of life in nature can be explored. This project will train graduate students and undergraduate students in methods to collect, observe, and describe Cryptomycota, providing the next generation of experts. This project aims to discover and culture described and new species of Cryptomycota, characterizing them with developmental, ultrastructural and molecular features. Algal and zoosporic fungal hosts of Cryptomycota will be collected from diverse habitats in eastern and southern United States. It is hypothesized that motile cells of Cryptomycota harbor ultrastructural architectural patterns in organellar arrangements which reflect evolutionary relationships. Analyses of seven genes will reveal phylogenetic relationships and permit mapping of host, nutritional and ultrastructural character state evolution, thereby generating hypotheses about early fungal evolution and divergence of Cryptomycota from protists and animals. A Cryptomycota website will include images, taxonomic summaries, interactive identification keys, and applications of ultrastructural and molecular characters in phylogenetic analyses, making this group more tractable for future studies. The research is transformative because cultures of Cryptomycota will be available to the community for even more extensive research. Undergraduate students in freshman biology will be given an authentic research experience making field collections of host organisms, screening for presence of Cryptomycota endoparasites, and characterizing with gene sequences, stimulating students' interest in research careers in biodiversity and conservation.