The role of primates on the maintenance of fungi species diversity

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25650145
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Ecology/Environment
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: HANYA Goro 京都大学, 霊長類研究所, 准教授 (40444492)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 真菌 / 霊長類 / 胞子散布 / 次世代シーケンス / ニホンザル / 屋久島 / 子実体

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We have already clarified that Japanese macaques eat a wide variety of species of fungi fruiting bodies. In this study, as a next step, we aimed to prove that soil fungi species composition changes by the addition of feces of macaques that eat fungi fruiting bodies. We collected 30 feces of Japanese macaques in Yakushima. According to the microscopic observations, most of the feces contained live fungi spores. These feces were set on the ground of Yakushima under five different conditions to discriminate the effects of macaques' spore dispersal and the increase of ammonia fungi. Soil was collected after 1 month, 3 months, and 1 year of the experiments. Changes in fungi species composition are clarified by the DNA analysis of these soil and fecal samples.

Free Research Field

生態学