EAGER: Transforming Approaches to Study Myxomycete Diversity and Collection Preservation

There is a critical need for natural history collection preservation of biodiversity efforts and to provide a pathway to train the next generation of mycologists (scientists who study fungi such as molds and mushrooms). Myxomycetes (also known as slime molds) are drastically understudied compared to other microbes. The slime molds, once classified as a group of fungi, are a distinct lineage of funguslike protists studied primarily by mycologists.

They are used as model organisms to study evolution, cell biology, development and ecology. The PI’s goal is to produce an interdisciplinary training platform of undergraduate and graduate students at Tuskegee University that addresses the intersection of basic microbial ecology questions with waning taxonomic knowledge. Environmental specimens and samples from the L.

Frederick Myxomycete Collection will advance global biological records, aid in understanding the ecology of slime molds, and will develop digital slime mold teaching and learning resources. Utilizing new and old specimen data may reduce biological sampling biases across a range of groups of organisms that are underrepresented in the Tree of Life. Financial support for preservation efforts invests in cultural wealth and the bioeconomy.

The diversity, ecology and evolution of slime molds based on molecular techniques are poorly understood. Bark samples in the L. Frederick Collection comprise a historically significant collection that have been preserved for over forty years from countries including USA, Australia, China, Japan New Zealand and Greece.

Molecular methods will be used will confirm the identification of type specimens and potential novel record of slime mold diversity. Digitized natural history collections have proven to be valuable resources and results from this study will be deposited into public data portals, broadening accessibility. Additionally, in this project the diversity and composition of slime molds communities across a wetland, transition, upland gradient in Macon County, Alabama will be documented.

The These efforts will increase the taxonomic resolution for slime mold ecological studies and will allow training of a multidisciplinary research team of undergraduate and graduate students at Tuskegee University. The project’s activities will enhance the understanding of the ecological importance of slime molds as decomposers and the role that they play in the recycling nutrients.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.