Dimensions: Collaborative Research: An Interdisciplinary Study of Hyperdiverse Endophytic Fungi and Their Function in Boreal Forests

As major sources of ecological and evolutionary innovation, symbioses drive genome evolution, ecological diversification, and speciation - and thus shape all dimensions of the diversity of life. The goal of this study is to examine the taxonomic, genetic, and functional diversity of endophytes, one of Earth's most prevalent, but least-understood, groups of symbionts. Endophytic fungi are found within healthy above-ground tissues of all plants (and in lichens as 'endolichenic fungi'), including crop- and forage plants, and peak in their phylogenetic diversity in boreal forests, an imperiled ecosystem of immense global importance. This interdisciplinary study will develop a novel biodiversity informatics pipeline to discover, evaluate, and describe new species of boreal endophytes at multiple spatial and phylogenetic scales around the circumboreal belt. Culture-based and culture-free surveys will yield the largest sample of endophytic fungi to date, setting the stage for testing novel hypotheses regarding the evolution of ecological modes in the Ascomycota, the most species-rich fungal phylum; developing new model systems for evaluating, for the first time, the functional diversity of endophyte communities; and elucidating the genetic mechanisms shaping that diversity, including mobile genetic elements, endohyphal microbial symbionts, and genome evolution. Data will be managed and released through an integrated system built around the Suite of Nucleotide Analysis Programs (SNAP) and made public through a dedicated web portal, EnDoBiodiversity.org.

This highly integrative project also seeks to promote diversity in science for high school students, STEM teachers, undergraduate and graduate students, and postdoctoral scholars at scales ranging from local outreach at four universities to widespread international collaboration. Hosting of international researchers, leadership of international workshops, and development of international symposia will synergize fungal taxonomy and molecular systematics while boosting rates of species descriptions to a level never reached before and fostering novel collaborations in the study of fungal symbionts. Building and sharing of novel biodiversity informatics tools will be complemented by development and deposition of permanent fungal culture collections and extensive molecular sequence datasets.