| Abstract Detail
Poster Session Romero-Olivares, Adriana Lucia [1], Taylor, John W [2], Treseder, Kathleen [1]. Can fungi adapt to global warming? Neurospora discreta holds the answer. Fungi comprise one-third of the microbial biomass in boreal forests. They decompose soil organic matter and release CO2 into the atmosphere. This process is highly temperature-sensitive, at least in the short term. In boreal forests, temperature is increasing due to global warming. In fact, projections predict an increase of 4 to 7 °C in these ecosystems in the next century. We are using Neurospora discreta as a model organism to answer questions relating global warming and fungal activities. For example: will the fungal community respire more CO2, even after they have had the opportunity to adapt to increased temperatures? Over the long term, will there be a loss of soil carbon stocks as a consequence of high decomposition rates? We hypothesize that N. discreta will adapt to temperature change, which will translate in downregulation of its metabolism and respiration rate. We measured growth rate, biomass, spore production, and CO2 respiration at 4, 10, 16, 22 and 28°C, before and after experimentally adapting the fungus to 28°C for 1500 asexual generations. Our results suggest that adaptation to elevated temperatures resulted in alterations in the metabolism of N. discreta. Spore production and CO2 respiration rates were on average significantly higher in adapted strains compared to parental strains, suggesting higher fitness and a potential decline in carbon use efficiency. Furthermore, growth rate and biomass were significantly lower in adapted strains compared to parental strains. Thus, we observed adaptation to the warmer temperature, but with the opposite response in CO2 respiration as we had hypothesized. Our experiments were performed under controlled laboratory conditions. We are currently carrying out field experiments to determine physiological responses of N. discreta under an experimentally warmed field site in a boreal forest in Alaska.
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1 - University of California Irvine , Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, 321 Steinhaus Hall, Irvine, CA, 92697-2525, United States
2 - UC Berkeley, Plant and Microbial Biology, 111 Koshland Hall, Berkeley, California, 94720-3102, United States
Keywords:
adaptation
Neurospora
global warming
evolution
boreal forests
N. discreta
physiology.
Presentation Type: Offered Paper - Poster
Session: P2
Location: Lincoln Room/Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center
Date: Tuesday, June 10th, 2014
Time: 8:00 PM
Number: P2009
Abstract ID:32
Candidate for Awards:Graduate Student Poster Presentation Award |
