SUPR
Fungal and oomycete communities in forests
Dnr:

NAISS 2025/22-776

Type:

NAISS Small Compute

Principal Investigator:

Tage Rosenqvist

Affiliation:

Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet

Start Date:

2025-05-20

End Date:

2026-06-01

Primary Classification:

40104: Forest Science

Webpage:

Allocation

Abstract

Fungal and oomycete microorganisms interact with trees in many ways, with relationships ranging from mutualistic to pathogenic. This project aims to characterize the fungal and oomycete communities associated with a variety of of economically and ecologically valuable trees, using DNA/RNA sequencing-based methods. Subprojects include analysis of ITS2 amplicons from fungal communities associated with Populus trees, identification of potentially novel oomycete species in publicly available metagenomics datasets, and PCR-and-culture-free detection and characterization of plant-pathogenic oomycete genus Phytophthora. The project will contribute to the resilience and preparedness of forestry and agricultural systems to existing and emerging threats from invasive microorganisms and climate change.