9504105 Fell Using molecular techniques for rapid and accurate determination of community structure, this research will determine fungal biodiversity and population biomass of two distinctly different groups of micro-fungi: the basidiomycetous yeasts and the oomycetous genus Halophythophora. Both groups have important roles in detrital based food webs. The research program will include laboratory and field studies. Laboratory studies will complete the data bank of know species as a basis for determining community structure in the field. New procedures will be developed with preliminary emphasis on quantitative PCR (QPCR) using laser detected infrared labeled primers. Field research will center on reef and mangrove habitats. Using a combination of classical microbial techniques and molecular methods, the community structure and relative abundance of known and unknown culturable fungi species will be determined. The identity of these species will be ascertained by automated DNA sequence analysis and nucleotide alignment with the data bank. Species-specific regions will be located and primers developed to test the accuracy and sensitivity of PCR techniques in estimating community structure. Through the use of PCR and QPCR, the occurrence of unculturable species and population densities will be estimated. The techniques developed in this research can be applied to population analyses of other micro- or macro-eukaryote communities.
