Overview

There is a mind-boggling diversity of fungi serving essential ecological roles in almost all ecosystems on Earth. Despite their ubiquity and importance, mycologists estimate that only about 10% of the total number of fungal species have been described. As a fungal biologist, I aim to close the gap between estimated and known diversity by describing new species, and to learn about and share with you the fascinating stories of ecology and evolution that fungi have to tell. 

Evolution of Gyromitrin

Gyromitrin is an acute toxin and potent carcinogen that is found in some mushrooms, particularly false morel mushrooms (Gyromitra spp.). The product of gyromitrin metabolism, monomethylhydrazine, is infamous for also being a component of rocket fuel, which is as bad for you as it sounds like it would be. You'd think this would be a deterrent to the consumption of false morels. However, in Finland, the highly poisonous Gyromitra esculenta is widely harvested and consumed as a delicacy after first being prepared with a laborious parboiling procedure to rid it of the majority of its gyromitrin. Across the United States, and especially in Michigan and the broader Midwest, there is also a culture of consuming certain false morel species, but these appear to be less toxic than the European species. But are they really? 

Despite its importance as a mycotoxin, we still don't know which species produce gyromitrin. False morels belong to a taxonomic family sister to that of the true morels (Morchella spp.; see the phylogenetic tree below). True morels should always be cooked thoroughly, in part because they are poisonous to many people when eaten raw. These symptoms are strikingly similar to those caused by gyromitrin. Our aim is to first determine which morel species (both true and false) contain gyromitrin, then find the genes responsible for its synthesis, and finally elucidate its evolutionary history. Since most fungi in the famiy Tuberaceae spread their spores via mycophagy (i.e., they attract animals to dig them up out of the groun and eat them), I expect there was a loss of function in terms of gyromitrin synthesis in this family, but this life history pattern remains to be tested. Along the way, we hope to formulate a set of best foraging practices for mushroom hunters in North America so that people can avoid gyromitrin exposure. 

We are looking for all the help we can get to crowdsource fungi from the four families shown below to test for gyromitrin distribution: Discinaceae, Helvellacea, Morchellacea, and Tuberaceae. Please read the instructions on iNaturalist if you are interested in contributing. 

Phylogram from Ekanayaka, A. H., Hyde, K. D., Jones, E. B. G., & Zhao, Q. (2018). Taxonomy and phylogeny of operculate discomycetes: Pezizomycetes. Fungal Diversity (Vol. 90). Springer Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13225-018-0402-z

Rediscovering Tardigrade Fungi

The evolutionary history of early-diverging fungi is still a great mystery in mycology. One of the biggest obstacles to the accurate reconstruction of the early events in the evolution of the kingdom is limited sampling. Within the early-diverging phylum Blastocladiomycota, there are no sequence data for one of the five families, Sorochytriaceae, which contains a single, enigmatic species: Sorochytrium milnesiophthora. First described in 1985, S. milnesiophthora parasitizes the tardigrade species Milnesium tardigradum. To my knowledge, this fungus has not been observed for over 30 years. Given that tardigrades constitute their own diverse phylum, I expect there to be many more species of zoosporic fungi that infect tardigrades. Maybe, someone just needs to look. The documentation of any tardigrade-infecting zoosporic fungus would be very exciting and could contribute enormously to our understading of the evolutionary history of fungi. 

Taxonomy of Crust Fungi

Crust fungi (or corticioid fungi) do not evoke much excitement or command great respect, even in the mycological community. However, they are extremely diverse and ecologically important. This is in part due to the fact that crust fungi are a form group. They are defined not by shared ancestry but by having the same crusty two-dimensional form. In other words, wherever you look across the basidiomycetes, you find crusts. Crust fungi make up for their lack of macroscopic charisma with extraordinary microscopic diveristy, representing the entire spectrum of spores, hyphae, and sterile cells of the Agaricomycotina subphylum. While many crusts break down dead wood, some form mutualistic associations with trees. Indeed, in many forests, crust fungi are the dominant members of the ectomycorrhizal community. The bottom of sticks and decaying logs is a great location to find crusts, but you can also find them on leaves, under conifer duff, on bark, and even on the underside of rocks! I endeavor to describe new species​ of crust fungi and document North American species at my other website, crustfungi.com. In the future, I'd like to make this website dynamic so that crust enthusiasts across North America can upload profiles for their favorite species. 

Past Research

Metabarcoding of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi

For my Master's thesis, I evaluated the effects of nitrogen addition on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi associating with switchgrass, a biofuel feedstock, using long-read, high-throughput sequencing. Read more at Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 

Taxonomy of the Anamorph Sphaerosporium lignatile

As part of the international Fungal Systematics and Evolution (FUSE) collaboration, we resolved the familial status of the previously unplaced fungus Sphaerosporium lignatile as Pyronemataceae (Pezizales), closely related to the eyelash cup fungus (Scutellinia). Check it out here. 

DNA Barcoding of the 2018 Smith Foray Macrofungi

We DNA barcoded 63 mushrooms that were collected during the 2018 Smith Foray in Mazomanie, WI. Three species were first reports for the United States and 15 were new records for Wisconsin. The manuscript was accepted by The Great Lakes Botanist. 

Boston Harbor Islands Fungal Biodiveristy Survey

As my first experience in mycology, I worked with the nonprofit organization Boston Harbor Now, Harvard University, and the National Park Service in collecting and documenting fungi from the Boston Harbor Islands National Park. Read more here.