Cryptogamic facility for molecules, morphology, and natural product chemistry

提出了一种研究真菌和地衣系统的新设备。这个设施将是新颖的，因为它将保留传统植物标本室的分类方面，但消除重复标本（模式标本和稀有物种除外），从而防止过度生长超出所提供的空间的能力。该设施将包括一个温度控制的真菌培养箱，当真菌培养物成熟后，将在相邻的烤箱中干燥，并储存在金属植物标本室中。该设施将为用户提供显微镜，一台数码相机将用于在个人电脑上存储和处理真菌和地衣的图像。这些图像将作为难以培养和维持的物种的研究凭证，它们将对自然界中很少观察到的真菌和地衣群体的HQP培训具有很高的价值。这也将为科学界提供可靠的途径，以查找有关难以培养的生物体的信息和相关数据。真菌和地衣生物多样性的研究，利用物种清单、基因和次生代谢物的变异、移动元件和基因调控，对于从分子到形态理解生态系统至关重要。适当保存这些标本将为分类提供形态学特征，并为研究种群和进化变异提供DNA和次生化合物。利用保存完好的标本进行的其他研究可能有助于了解可移动元件的运动和植物疾病的传播，或了解具有重要药用和生态意义的次生化合物的基因调控。

A new facility to study fungal and lichen systematics is proposed. This facility will be novel because it will retain the classification aspect of traditional herbaria but eliminate duplicate specimens (except type specimens and rare species) so that excessive growth beyond the capacity of the space provided will be prevented. The facility will include a temperature controlled incubator for fungal cultures that, when mature, will be dried in an adjacent oven, and stored in metal herbarium cabinets.  Microscopes will be available for the users of the facility and a digital camera will be used to store and manipulate images of fungi and lichens on a PC computer. These images will serve as research vouchers for species that are difficult to culture and maintain, and they will be highly valuable for HQP training of groups of fungi and lichens that are rarely observed in nature. This will also provide reliable access for the scientific community to find information on hard-to-culture organisms and associated data. Studies of fungal and lichen biodiversity, using inventories of species, variation in genes and secondary metabolites, mobile elements, and gene regulation, are essential for understanding ecosystems from the molecule to morphology. Appropriate storage of these specimens will preserve the morphological features for taxonomy, and the DNA and secondary compounds for studying population and evolutionary variation. Other studies using the well preserved specimens may lead to an understanding of the movement of mobile elements and the spread of plant disease, or gene regulation in medicinally and ecologically important secondary compounds.