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<strong>MERG</strong> Endophytic fungi in boreal forest bryophytes Objectives of the project • Describe the diversity of endophytic fungi in three abundant boreal forest bryophytes across different habitats and spatial scales, ranging from the single bryophyte shoot up to the global intercontinental scale. • Explore how the diversity of fungal endophytes in forest bryophytes is affected by landuse, i.e. forestry operations. • Explore how the diversity of endophytes in forest bryophytes is affected by environmental pollution, i.e. nitrogen deposition and acidification. • Chemically characterize secondary metabolites produced by fungal endophytes in boreal forest bryophytes. • Estimate the role of fungal endophytes in the relationship between bryophytes and herbivores. Project summary Fungi that live hidden inside plant tissues, apparently without causing injuries to the host plant appear to be ubiquitous. These fungi are endophytes and they belong to several fungal taxonomical groups. While there is a growing appreciation of the ecological importance and human uses of fungal endophytes in higher plants, remarkably little is known about their host specificity, diversity, and functional role in bryophytes. In this project, which integrates chemical, microbiological, mycological and ecological competences, we will study the endophytic fungi and their functional role in three boreal bryophytes, i.e. Hylocomium splendens, Pleurozium schreberi and Polytrichum commune. You may wonder, by all right, why we chose to target some tiny bryophytes when there are so many other and more spectacular plants around? First, these three bryophytes have a circumpolar distribution and they are extremely abundant in boreal areas. In the boreal biome they occur in all places on land and their biomass outranges most other boreal organisms. Second, they play an important functional role in boreal forests, which is the world’s second largest terrestrial biome. The project is funded by NFR (Miljø 2015). The team Marie Davey (Post Doc), Lisbeth Thorsvik (scientific assistant), Håvard Kauserud, Mikael Ohlson (UMB) + external collaborators. 10 Endophytic fungi Photo: Marie Davey
<strong>MERG</strong> Evolutionary diversification and functional genomic studies of the Collodictyonidae Objectives of the project - Investigate the molecular phylogeny of a Collodicyonidae species already in culture - Study the distribution and diversity of possibly related species by means of environmental rDNA PCR and/or selected genes - Bring new related organisms in culture for identification of allegedly primitive traits by molecular methods - Discuss the relation between these organisms and the concept of the most primitive eukaryote Project summary Collodictyon triciliatum Carter 1865 is an amoebo-flagellate originally described from a pond in India. It is occasionally found in freshwater lakes and rivers, but it is rare and its systematic relationship to other amoeba and flagellate-like organisms has been uncertain. We have a culture of this organism, isolated from lake Årungen, and had only done some preliminary light- and electronmicroscopical work on this organisms. The overall goal of this project is to obtain an understanding of the origin and evolutionary traits of an allegedly primitive organism, by use of frontline methods now available. In addition, by employing environmental PCR and recently developed methods using the 454-titanium technology, we expect to shed light upon the distribution of related organisms in nature, and to obtain a scientifically founded idea about the evolutionary development and systematic relationship to other organisms. This may involve a discussion of what are ancestrally primitive eukaryote traits.This investigation leads us into questions of great general interest. The team Sen Zhao (PhD), Jon Bråte (PhD), Klaus Høiland, Kamran Shalchian-Tabrizi, Thomas Rohrlach, Dag Klaveness. 11 Collodictyon triciliatum Photo: Dag Klaveness
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