Induction of adaptive plasticity in fungus-fungivore interactions

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Marko Rohlfs
• Subject Area: Ecology and Biodiversity of Animals and Ecosystems, Organismic Interactions
• Term: from 2010 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 170990413

The formation of toxic metabolites by fungi has been suggested to shape, evolve in response to, and to be shaped by ecological interactions with fungal feeders. However, conclusive information on the role of fungal secondary metabolites in driving co-evolutionary processes in fungus-fungivore interactions is still lacking. The project presented here aims at tracing patterns of co-evolution in a fungus-fungivore model system, comprising the springtail Folsomia candida and Aspergillus mould fungi. It is hypothesised that (i) fungivores show adaptive foraging behaviour in response to transgenic fungi manipulated in the expression of genes involved in biosynthetic, regulatory and signal transduction pathways. (ii) This behaviour should correlate with fitness consequences for both fungivores and fungi. (iii) To reduce the metabolic costs of toxin formation, fungi display an induced chemical response to fungivory. To test these hypotheses, plasticity in fungivore behaviour will be measured, as well as reciprocal fitness consequences, fungal and fungivore gene expression and secondary metabolite formation.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Netherlands
• Participating Persons: Professor Dr. Petr Karlovsky; Dr. Dick Roelofs