Tropical fungi

How diverse are groups of obligate plant-associated fungi in tropical and temperate forests and what can these patterns tell us about their evolutionary history?

The goals of this project include elucidating the distribution and diversity of ectomycorrhizal (ECM) plant hosts and their fungi in tropical rainforests. Our study sights include the central Guiana Shield (Guyana) in South America, and the Congo basin in Cameroon in Central West Africa. In these locations we combine sequencing of sporocarp (mushroom) and ECM root tip collections to assess ECM fungal diversity.

In particular my expertise and focus is in the fungal genus Clavulina and relatives in the Cantharellales (Basidiomycota). Clavulina is distributed globally and associates with multiple hosts but exhibits hyper-diversity in the neotropics based on current collection and molecular data.

We use phylogenomics to ask questions about relationships between species from different locations, for example from South America and Africa. We also use amplicon barcode sequencing from soil and colonized root tip samples to identify what fungi are present at each location.

Below you will find images of recently described and undescribed Clavulina species and relatives that I described, sequenced, and illustrated. You can see photos from previous expeditions in the Mycologists at work page and short documentary films in thevideos. This NSF funded research endeavor is led by Drs. Terry Henkel and Cathie Aime.

GUYANA STUDY SITE

Click here to see fungi of Guyana!

The Guiana Shield region of North Eastern South America. image from Tropicalfungi.org

In Guyana, we study ECM fungi associated with plant hosts in the following families; Caesalpinioideae, Dipterocarpaceae, Polygonaceae, Nyctaginaceae, and Gnetaceae. The primary host plant is a caesalpiniod legume, Dicymbe corymbosa. There are over 300 taxa of ECM fungi in the area based on molecular and sporocarp (mushroom) based data, a complete taxon list is available here. Our research team has worked to describe many of these species yet, they are far outnumbered by undescribed species in the region. You can find much more information about the project, fungi, collaborators, and host plants at tropicalfungi.org.

CAMEROON STUDY SITE

Click here to see fungi of Cameroon!

Screen Shot 2017-06-12 at 12.06.44 PM — The Congo river basin region in tropical West Africa, including in Cameroon. Image from Google.

In Fall of 2017 we visited the Dja Wildlife Reserve to collect ECM sporocarps and root tips. Many ECM host plants related to those found in the Guiana shield region are present in Cameroon (Gilbertiodendron, Caesalpinoidae, Legmuninaceae), where they host relatives of Guyanese fungi (Clavulina species and many others). An open research question I am interested in is what drives global diversity distribution patterns in ECM fungal taxa such as Clavulina.