Collaborative Research: The Zygomycetes Genealogy of Life (ZyGoLife)- the conundrum of Kingdom Fungi

合作研究：接合菌生命谱系（ZyGoLife）——真菌王国的难题

• 批准号: 1441677
• 负责人: Timothy James
• 金额: $ 69.04万
• 依托单位: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-01-01 至 2019-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1441677&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Zygomycetes; Genealogy; Life

Fungi comprise one of the most successful groups of life on Earth. They inhabit most of the world's environments, where they perform numerous functions (e.g., nutrient cycling, foundations of food webs, etc.) that are central to healthy ecosystems. Importantly, fungi interact with all other forms of life, including plants, animals and bacteria -- in associations that range from beneficial to antagonistic. Zygomycete fungi, the focus of this research project, are an ancient group in which most of the morphological and ecological traits associated with Kingdom Fungi first arose, but their evolutionary history and ecological associations have not yet been well resolved. This project will reconstruct the genealogical relationships of this earliest branch in fungal evolutionary history, resolve the origins of symbiotic relationships between plants and zygomycetes, reveal how complex body plans evolved in the group, elucidate mechanisms of mating genetics between organisms with complex and differing life cycles, and develop genomic barcodes to facilitate identification of unknown fungi. The results of this research will contribute to many scientific disciplines and to society. Expanding and maintaining expertise on these fungi is critical for the field of biology, human health and productivity, and safe food production. This project includes training of the next generation of mycologists, dissemination of information on basic fungal biology, development of teaching resources, expansion of biological database and web resources, development of research materials including strain cultures and genomes for the wider scientific community, and broadening of participation of underrepresented groups in STEM disciplines.Zygomycetes are filamentous fungi that lack flagella and that produce simple but defined reproductive structures. An initial analysis of zygomycete genomes support the hypothesis that the group is a pivotal transition point between certain flagellated Fungi and their specific life histories, and what became the dominant eukaryotic terrestrial clade of Fungi (the fleshy fungi, e.g., mushrooms). Because the zygomycetes are the first terrestrial fungi that exhibit fruiting bodies, understanding how these structures evolved will provide a basis for understanding the origins of complex morphogenesis (e.g., multicellularity) in the Fungi, as well as the evolution of complex life histories. Zygomycetes also display a diversity of ecological relationships with plants (mycorrhizae), animals (pathogens) and bacteria (endosymbionts). Resolving the phylogenetic origins of these interactions will provide an evolutionary framework for elucidating molecular and biochemical mechanisms that govern these interactions, and in doing so, will have direct impacts on research into natural and managed ecosystems and human welfare. This research will also refine molecular environmental sampling techniques, resulting in a more accurate census of zygomycete biodiversity, especially in soil ecosystems. By gathering orders of magnitude more genome-scale data and integrating it with biochemical, morphological, subcellular, and fossil data layers, this elusive region of the fungal genealogy of life will be illuminated and will provide a foundation for broad scale biological research.

真菌是地球上最成功的人生群体之一。他们居住在世界上大多数环境中，在这些环境中，他们在健康生态系统中执行许多功能（例如，营养循环，食物网的基础等）。重要的是，真菌与所有其他形式的生活形式相互作用，包括植物，动物和细菌 - 从有益到拮抗作用的关联。该研究项目的重点是Zygomycete真菌，是一个古老的群体，其中大多数与王国真菌相关的形态学和生态特征首先出现，但是它们的进化历史和生态关联尚未得到很好的解决。 This project will reconstruct the genealogical relationships of this earliest branch in fungal evolutionary history, resolve the origins of symbiotic relationships between plants and zygomycetes, reveal how complex body plans evolved in the group, elucidate mechanisms of mating genetics between organisms with complex and differing life cycles, and develop genomic barcodes to facilitate identification of unknown fungi.这项研究的结果将有助于许多科学学科和社会。扩大和维持这些真菌的专业知识对于生物学，人类健康和生产力以及安全的粮食生产至关重要。该项目包括培训下一代真菌学家，传播有关基本真菌生物学的信息，教学资源的发展，生物数据库和网络资源的扩展，开发研究材料，包括为更广泛的科学界的应变培养和基因组的开发，以及在STEM ISCOLLINES中的范围不足的群体的参与。对二癌基因组的初步分析支持了以下假设：该组是某些鞭毛真菌及其特定的寿命之间的关键过渡点，以及变成了真菌（肉质真菌，例如蘑菇）的主流真核生物陆地进化枝。 因为合子菌是表现出结实物体的第一个陆地真菌，因此了解这些结构如何发展为理解真菌中复杂形态发生（例如多细胞性）的起源的基础，以及复杂生命历史的演变。 合子菌还表现出与植物（菌根），动物（病原体）和细菌（内共生菌）的生态关系多样性。解决这些相互作用的系统发育起源将为阐明控制这些相互作用的分子和生化机制提供进化框架，并在此过程中直接影响对自然和管理生态系统和人类福利的研究。 这项研究还将完善分子环境抽样技术，从而导致更准确的zygomycete生物多样性，尤其是在土壤生态系统中。通过收集数量级的基因组规模数据，并将其与生化，形态学，亚细胞和化石数据层集成在一起，生命真菌谱系的这个难以捉摸的地区将被照亮，并将为广大生物学研究提供基础。