Research Expertise and Interest

comparative genomics, bioinformatics, ecology, mycology

Research Description

From old growth forests to the human body, fungi are so primary to bionetworks that they interact in some way with every species on Earth. These interactions take on a myriad of forms, with fungi playing roles as deadly pathogens, obligate mutualists, essential carbon cyclers, and biological workhorses responsible for the production of goods as diverse as antibiotics, industrial enzymes, beer and bread. Across this diversity, fungi span scales of community organization and tie molecules to ecosystems by forming networks of interspecific interactions. Understanding how these interactions are formed, maintained, and broken, is essential to making epidemiological predictions for both plant and animal hosts, to preserving biodiversity, and to forecasting how ecosystems will respond to a changing planet. 

Our lab leverages computational, -omic, and molecular approaches to study the mechanisms of fungal interactions. These interactions span scales from cellular ecology to interkingdom exchanges of infochemicals, nutrients, and toxins. To do this, we are developing Suillus fungi as a model genus for ectomycorrhizal ecology and evolution. We are particularly interested in understanding host specificity, competition, guild plasticity, trait and genome evolution, and how these concepts intersect with ecological theory.