Fungi in the pine barrens ecosystem - biodiversity, systematics and function

尽管经过了两个世纪的研究，地球上大多数真菌的生物多样性仍然未知。先前的研究表明，在美国东部未被研究的松树荒地生态系统中，植物根部含有独特的高度多样化的真菌物种，其中许多是科学上的新物种。该项目的目标是通过研究植物的生物多样性、系统学和功能，全面了解酸性、贫瘠、干燥和易起火的松树荒地生态系统中与植物根系相关的真菌。该项目将专注于与松树、柳枝草和蓝莓相关的真菌，这些都是松树荒地生态系统中的优势植物和耐压植物。该项目将为来自不同背景的本科生、研究生和博士后助理提供研究经验和培训，并将为联邦和州机构(如新泽西州皮尼兰德委员会和环境保护部)制定土地利用和自然资源保护政策提供信息。该项目还将为提高森林以及生物能源和粮食作物的抗逆性研究提供资源，以应对气候变化的挑战，如干旱、野火、土壤酸化和养分限制。该项目的主要目标是：1)从缅因州到佛罗里达州的纬度样带收集松树荒地生态系统中与植物根相关的真菌，并全面命名和描述新的真菌谱系；2)使用基于培养的和非培养的下一代DNA元编码对这些不同气候和地理位置的根真菌群落进行分类和比较，以了解和预测气候对真菌生物群的影响；3)进行植物与真菌的相互作用实验并研究这些与根相关的真菌的功能；以及4)培训学生和博士后，以便在整个这些活动范围内进行研究。这项研究将结合系统发生学、进化论、分类学、生物多样性、生物生物学和下一代DNA元生物编码等领域。该项目将发现新的真菌，并阐明这些根部定植真菌的功能，这对自然和作物相关应用都很重要。该项目还将提供数据，通过将培养物与迄今为止仅从DNA序列中获知的分类群联系起来，提高真菌多样性估计的准确性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Despite two centuries of study, most fungal biodiversity on Earth remains unknown. Prior research indicates that plant roots in the understudied pine barrens ecosystem of the Eastern United States harbors unique and highly diverse fungal species, many of which are new to science. The goal of this project is to obtain a complete understanding of fungi associated with plant roots in the acidic, nutrient-poor, dry and fire-prone pine barrens ecosystem by studying their biodiversity, systematics and functions. The project will focus on fungi associated with pine, switchgrass and blueberry, which are the predominant and stress-tolerant plants in the pine barrens ecosystem. The project will provide research experience and training for undergraduate students, graduate students, and a postdoctoral associate from diverse backgrounds and will provide information for policy formulation by federal and state agencies (e.g., the New Jersey Pinelands Commission and the Department of Environmental Protection) regarding land use and natural resource protection. This project also will provide resources for studies on increasing stress tolerance of forests, as well as bioenergy and food crops, to meet the challenges of climate change, such as drought, wildfire, soil acidification and nutrient limitation. The major objectives of this project are: 1) to collect plant root-associated fungi from the pine barrens ecosystem along a latitudinal transect from Maine to Florida, and to comprehensively name and describe novel fungal lineages; 2) to catalogue and compare the root fungal communities among these different climate and geographic locations using both culture-based and culture-independent next-generation DNA metabarcoding to understand and predict the impact of climate on the mycobiome; 3) to perform plant-fungal interaction experiments and study the functions of these root associated fungi; and 4) to train students and postdoc to conduct research across the entire spectrum of these activities. This study will combine the fields of phylogenetics, evolution, taxonomy, biodiversity, organismal biology, and next-generation DNA metabarcoding. The project will uncover novel fungi and elucidate the functions of these root-colonizing fungi, which is important for both natural and crop-associated applications. This project also will provide data to improve the accuracy of fungal diversity estimates through linking cultures with taxa that are, thus far, only known from DNA sequences.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.