Lutzoni and Vilgalys Fungi make up one of the major lineages of life, and include important decay organisms and pathogens of humans, plants, and animals. There are roughly 80,000 described species of Fungi, but the actual diversity in the group has been estimated to be as high as 1.5 million species. This collaborative project by five major investigators and their numerous colleagues worldwide will generate the first global synthesis of the phylogenetic history of the fungi, which is necessary to expand our knowledge of the history of life on Earth as well as the origin of ecosystems and adaptive features that can have a direct impact on human health. Assembling the Fungal Tree of Life (the AFToL project) will significantly enhance our understanding of the fungal kingdom, especially ancient relationships that are not resolved among the chytrids, zygomycetes, ascomycetes, and basidiomycetes. The AFToL project will develop large data sets of molecular and non-molecular (morphological, anatomical, life-history) characters, which will be accessible via the world-wide web in continuously updated databases. Molecular characters to be acquired include DNA sequences for seven nuclear genes sampled from approximately 1500 species, representing all major groups of Fungi. Nonmolecular characters to be sampled include cellular machinery associated with nuclear and cell division and cell wall biochemistry. The AFToL project will be based in five laboratories at four universities with the core responsibilities of the participating laboratories as follows: David Hibbett (Clark University), collection of molecular data from Basidiomycota; Francois Lutzoni (Duke University), collection of molecular data from Ascomycota including lichens and bioinformatics; David McLaughlin (University of Minnesota), collection and databasing of morphological characters; Joseph Spatafora (Oregon State University), collection of molecular data from Ascomycota; and Rytas Vilgalys (Duke University), collection of molecular data from Chytridiomycota and Zygomycota. The AFToL project will involve more than 115 members of the international fungal systematics community in 23 countries for all stages of the project, from selection of taxa to collection and analyses of data. It will be the policy of the AFToL project that all validated data will be released via the web as soon as they have been generated. Fungi play crucial ecological roles as decayers, mutualistic symbionts, and pathogens, including pathogens of humans. The economic significance of fungi is almost incalculable; they perform vital "ecological services" and their functional roles are the subject of diverse applied disciplines, including agriculture, medicine, and drug discovery, to name just a few. A phylogenetic database for Fungi will facilitate the creation of powerful diagnostic and forensic tools for environmental surveys and other applications, and will enable the discovery of the many fungal species that remain undescribed. Training and outreach activities are an important aspect of the AFToL project and will take several forms including graduate and post-doctoral training, support for visiting graduate students, undergraduate training, summer courses for high school teachers, and website resources for K-12 educators.
