“Jelly fungi” in Scandinavia

Summary

This project focuses on selected groups of “jelly fungi” or “heterobasidiomycetes” which are a heterogeneous group of basidiomycete fungi with gelatinous fruiting bodies and septate basidia. Many representatives of these groups are dimorphic and switch between a hyphal phase that frequently is sexual and fruitbody-producing and a haploid, unicellular yeast-phase. The jelly fungi show great diversity in their nutritional habit, but many are more or less parasitic on other fungi, including lichens. It is generally assumed that lichen-inhabiting fungi have co-evolved with their lichenized hosts, but very few studies have tested this. We study general taxonomic and phylogenetic questions, including several species and generic delimitation issues and higher-level classification problems, including groups within Tremella, Biatoropsis, and Heterocephalacria/Syzygospora s. lat. in the Tremellomycetes, and Chionosphaera and Cyphobasidium among the Puccinomycotina. We further study general evolutionary questions and utilize these host-parasite systems to investigate if co-evolution potentially could have occurred between the fungi involved. Finally, we address questions related to the life cycle of these fungi, in particular regarding the distribution of yeast stages. One PhD student in the project will defend her thesis in 2022.

This research is funded by the Swedish Taxonomy Initiative (Svenska artprojektet) and the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet, VR)

Project Participants at the Museum

Mats Wedin (principal investigator)

External Project Participants

Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Mostoles, Spain

Musée national d’histoire naturelle, Luxembourg

Uppsala University, Sweden