This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
Fungi in the groups Harpellales and Asellariales spend their entire lives in the guts of insects; they cannot grow independently. They may be parasites or may be mutualists that live in harmony with their hosts. The fungal-host associations can be traced back millions of years. One group, Harpellales, lives primarily in immature aquatic insects (including important disease carriers such as mosquitoes and black flies and various nymphs) and the other, Asellariales, in adult isopods (including pill bugs) and springtails. These fungi are, not surprisingly, poorly studied. New species are discovered frequently, and their evolutionary relationships are largely unknown. This project will determine how many species of these fungi exist, how they are identified, and how they are related. The project will involve extensive collecting in the U.S., followed by detailed studies of the organisms and their hosts. Evolutionary histories will be inferred with DNA sequences.
Because these fungi parasitize mosquitoes and black flies, they have the potential to serve as biocontrol agents. Other fungi in this group have evolved to live without killing their hosts, but the genetic changes that led to this comfortable arrangement are not known. This project will provide basic tools for locating and identifying the fungi, and will make these identification guides available on the web. Once they are available, it will be possible to investigate the basic biology of the fungi and to explore their value for ecosystems and for society.
