Microbial ecology of fungal viruses and hypovirulence

真菌病毒越来越被认为是影响其真菌宿主的毒力、流行和生存的一组重要的和多样化的感染因子。许多真菌在农业、园艺和林业中引起经济上重要的植物疾病，这些宿主中的真菌病毒为疾病管理的分子和生物学策略的改进发展提供了机会。本提案中提出的研究将研究真菌病毒在一组重要的植物病原体菌核菌物种的生理和生态学中的作用。生理学研究将识别降低植物病原体致病能力（如低毒力）的真菌病毒，确定这些病毒如何干扰其真菌宿主的正常生长和发育，并调查为什么一些被感染的真菌表现出感染症状，而另一些则没有。生态学研究将确定真菌病毒在这些植物病原体的自然种群中的流行和分布，调查这些病毒向其他真菌物种传播的可能性，并研究这些病毒在自然界中如何传播和影响它们的真菌宿主。总的来说，这项研究将有助于真菌病毒的分子或生物学策略的植物病害管理的评估。

Fungal viruses are increasingly being recognized as an important and diverse group of infectious agents that affect the virulence, prevalence, and survival of their fungal hosts. Many fungi cause economically-important plant diseases in agriculture, horticulture, and forestry, and fungal viruses in these hosts represent an opportunity for improved development of molecular and biological strategies of disease management.  Research proposed within this proposal will examine the role of fungal viruses in the physiology and ecology of an important group of plant pathogens, Sclerotinia species. Physiological studies will identify fungal viruses that reduce the ability of plant pathogens to cause disease (e.g. hypovirulence), determine how these viruses interfere with the normal growth and development of their fungal hosts, and investigate why some infected fungi display symptoms of infection and others do not.  Ecological studies will determine the prevalence and distribution of fungal viruses in naturally-occurring populations of these plant pathogens, investigate the potential for spread of these viruses to other fungal species, and examine how these viruses spread and influence their fungal hosts in nature. Collectively, this research will contribute to the assessment of fungal viruses for molecular or biological strategies of plant disease management.