Drs. David Padgett and Craig Bailey have received funding from the National Science Foundation for a five year project (2003-2008) to revise the systematics of the fungal-like protistan order Saprolegniales. This extremely large project involves the acquisition of all known species currently held in culture together and new collections from over 20 foreign countries. Each isolate will be subjected both to exhaustive morphological characterization and gene sequence analysis. Revision of the systematics of the group will be based on relationships as determined by sequence analysis. New keys will be devised to genera and species using morphological features determined by sequence analysis to be taxonomically valid. Masters and PhD students participating in this project will receive comprehensive training in classic morphological as well as modern molecular systematic techniques.