Nematode-Destroying Fungi of Costa Rica

University Of Wyoming, Laramie WY

Investigators

Abstract

The objective of this proposed research is to discover the diversity of Costa Rican fungi that attack and consume nematodes. The nematode-destroying fungi are an ecologically and potentially economically important group of fungi that regulate numbers of free-living, plant-parasitic, and animal-parasitic nematodes in nature. At present, approximately 300 species of nematode-destroying fungi have been described world-wide. The only published study for Costa Rica, however, lists only 3 species from two soil samples. The project will be focused on sampling and isolating nematode-destroying fungi from soils collected from a diverse array of natural and cultivated habitats in Costa Rica in conjunction with the Costa Rican National Biodiversity Institute (INBio). Much of the sampling and isolation will be conducted by Costa Rican researchers following training by the principal investigators. Products of the proposed research will include a published and web-based descriptive manual and interactive identification system to all taxa encountered in the study.