PEET: Taxonomy and Co-evolution of Trichomycetes (Gut- Inhabiting Fungi) and their Chironomidae (Diptera) Hosts

9521811 Lichtwardt Fulgi and insects constitute large, species-rich groups for which there are few taxonomic specialists, the more so for those organismal groups in aquatic or marine environments. This imaginative PEET project brings together expertise on both fungi and selected insects, to study an intriguing group of Trichomycete fungi that are symbiotic in the guts of primitive flies like Chironomidae and in crustaceans and millipedes. Dr. Robert Lichtwardt is an authority on Trichomycete fungi; his entomological colleague Dr. Leonard Ferrington is a specialist on Chironomidae flies. Together they have assembled a team of colleagues at the University of Kansas and at the USDA laboratory at Peoria, Illinois, along with foreign colleagues, to pursue research on the taxonomy, phylogeny, and potential coevolution of gut-dwelling fungi and their insect hosts. Some of the fungi are known to be lethal to mosquito larvae, while others have recently been shown to invade the ovarian tissue of the host insect, where they can subsequently disperse as 'cysts' during egg-laying behavior by the female. In so doing, they are suspected of reducing significantly the reproductive output of the host insects, which include blackflies. The research will build upon museum collections of the organisms and new collections made in the course of extensive field work, and will integrate traditional morphological characters with new molecular data from DNA sequencing and protein isozyme analyses. Training of graduate and postdoctoral students emphasizes laboratory and museum work as well as field collecting, and includes visits to the USDA-Peoria laboratory for training in modern DNA sequencing of fungi. Computerization of all aspects of research, including specimen databasing and construction of interactive identification keys, will enhance the timely dissemination of results from the University of Kansas' World Wide Web server.