Collection and molecular characterization of plant-associated microfungi

Symbioses between plants and fungi have been implicated in fundamental evolutionary processes for both groups, and these interactions continue to shape species- and ecosystem-level outcomes. However, our ability to infer evolutionary processes and patterns in these interactions, which span from lethal pathogenesis to obligate mutualism, are profoundly limited by the massive scale of unknown fungal biodiversity, particularly that which is not represented by DNA sequence data. Although the fungal diversity at UMBS is represented in the UM herbarium collections, certain taxonomic groups or ecological guilds of fungi are underrepresented because they were not historical specialties of UM faculty and staff. One of these groups is plant-associated ascomycete microfungi in the classes Sordariomycetes, Leotiomycetes, and Dothideomycetes. These ecologically important fungi often represent undescribed or understudied taxa. We aim to collect and characterize microfungi, publish sequence data, and make the specimens publicly available for study. These efforts will contribute to the documentation of a largely invisible component of the biodiversity at UMBS while making it possible for fungal taxonomists and systematics to locate specimens of interest from UMBS.

Photos or Graphics:

Cryptomycina pteridis - a "lost" plant parasitic lineage found at UMBS

Bracken fern showing signs of infection by Cryptomycina pteridis

Years Active:

2024 to 2027

Research sites:

Indian River

Carp Creek

Mud Lake - Inverness Twp.

Methods:

We plan to survey multiple sites and host plant taxa at UMBS for microfungi in summer and spring in order to capture a broad range of lifestyle diversity and life stages. We would like to deploy "wanted organism" posters that show diagnostic features of known fungi-of-interest on UMBS campus early in the field season to encourage students to look for commonly-overlooked microfungi and to help locate promising sites. For focal fungal taxa that have complex life histories linked to the life history of the host, we intend to temporarily mark plants (e.g., with temporary soil-planted flags or colored marking tape) showing signs of infection in summer in order to recollect the samples in spring once the fungal structures have matured. Samples will be dried in a food dehydrator or plant press for the herbarium, or used to inoculate media for living cultures for future experiments and possible deposition into culture collections. Specimens will be brought back to the Ann Arbor campus for additional processing. We will extract DNA and generate sequence data for multiple loci (ITS, LSU, SSU) to facilitate systematic classification and species-level identification via sequence similarity based methods and phylogenetic approaches, and perform microscopic characterization as required.

Funding agency:

University of Michigan - Biodiversity Exploration Fund

Primary tabs

Social

Collection and molecular characterization of plant-associated microfungi