Category: Student Spotlight Page 4 of 6

Sara Getson hails originally from State College, Pennsylvania where she received bachelor’s degrees in Plant Science and French Language. She is currently a master’s student in her final year studying under Dr. Mary Hausbeck at Michigan State University.

Tell us about your project!
So, I am really excited to be working on two different crops; Asparagus in Michigan and ginseng in Wisconsin and the Fusarium species affecting these systems. After nearly 30 years since the last survey of Fusarium species found in Michigan asparagus fields, my research is focusing on creating a new baseline for this pathogen for our growers. This is important because asparagus may take 2-3 years of establishment in a field before a harvest may be taken, consequently, if Fusarium isn’t managed effectively, it could mean a significantly reduced yield and revenue for our growers. To do this, I sampled crowns from a variety of growers and cultured them in order to get an idea of what species were present. This data will be able to help researchers focus management strategies on these most prevalent Fusaria. The other portion of my project centers on Fusarium species found in the ginseng perennial system as well. Ginseng is a high value crop and (like asparagus) may take a number of years to fully mature, thus pathogen management from the start is critical. Again, in order to manage this pathogen, we first need a baseline for what we might expect to find and control. This is where my survey project fits in, in order to develop that baseline data.It’s really super exciting to see all of the different morphological structures for each of these species!

Awards you would like to brag about?
I was the American Phytopathological Society National Meeting recipient of the Efrat Gamliel-Atinsky and Joseph P. Fulton Joint Student Travel Award in 2019! I also received a scholarship from the Michigan Vegetable Council in 2018 at the Great Lakes fruit and vegetable Expo and a Beneke Award recipient from Michigan State University Plant Pathology Program in December, 2017 😊

What are your career goals/plans for after you are done with your current
position?
After completing my master’s degree in a vegetable pathology lab, I will be returning home to Pennsylvania to co-manage a fruit farm and get some experience in fruits production in the state! Eventually, my long-term goal is to work for Penn State extension as an extension educator to work collaboratively with the university and with our growers to solve the challenges of the current day.

What is your favorite fungus and why?
My favorite fungus is Armillaria mellea (the honey mushroom!). This one has particular meaning for me since I would go mushroom hunting with my dad since I was pretty young and it is the first one I ever learned how to identify. It’s also super good when cooked well! 😊

What is your favorite fact/thing about fungi?
My favorite thing about fungi is how many roles they can play in our environment, from helping trees and plants to grow better and faster (mycorrhizae), to plant rust diseases with intricate life cycles, to phenomenal decomposers!

Who is your mycology role model?
Hmmmm, this is kind of a tough one… I suppose I would have to go with Gerlach and Nirenberg who compiled incredible illustrations of Fusarium conidia and morphological structures.

Any great stories from field work?
Well, let’s just say that ginseng gardens require rather tall boots 😉

What do you like to do in your free time? What are your hobbies?
Basically everything, haha! I love ballroom dancing, rock climbing, baking, cooking, gardening, mushroom hunting, reading, and a whole host of other things!

Anything else you’d like to talk about?
I really love teaching and it’s been a lot of fun to work with the Midwest Mycology Information program in Michigan to lecture for their mushroom hunting certification courses. This program is the first of its kind and helps to better inform those who wish to collect wild mushrooms and sell to restaurants and farmer’s markets for example!

Xiomy is a Master’s student that grew up in Pucallpa, Peru. She is currently
doing her research at Western Illinois University with the guidance of Dr.
Andrea Porras-Alfaro.

Tell us about your project!
My project focuses on the description of a new fungus within Pleosporales
using multi-locus sequencing and microscopy, then I will try to see how this
fungus interacts with native grasses under drought and heat stress. Another objective is to try to elucidate if there is host specificity of certain strains over Bouteloua gracillis, B. eripoda or B. dactyloides.
Awards you would like to brag about?
My poster was awarded the first place by the Illinois State Academy of Science
in the annual meeting this year. I received a scholarship from the Women in
Science Club at Western Illinois University.
What are your career goals/plans for after you are done with your current
position?
I plan to pursue a Ph.D and study the evolution and ecology of mycorrhizal
fungi or fungal endophytes.
What is your favorite fungus and why?
I don’t have a favorite fungus but I love micro-ascomycetes. I love the colors of
the colonies and how these tiny organisms produce beautiful and amazing
sexual and asexual structures.
What is your favorite fact/thing about fungi?
How plastic they are, how they completely change during their teleomorph and
anamorph phases.
Who is your mycology role model?
Giuliana Furci. She’s the first mycologist woman in Chile and founder of The
Fungi Foundation, the first NGO dedicated to the kingdom of Fungi in the
world.She changed the policies of Chile regarding the conservation of fungi.
Any great stories from field work?
Nothing special.
What do you like to do in your free time? What are your hobbies?
I like watching drama or thriller movies, painting or crocheting.
Anything else you’d like to talk about?
Many times language barriers prevent students interested in any science to
learn more. I have seen many cases in my home country during the Latin
American Congress of Mycology that is why I decided to create a Facebook
page called Hongos Peru where I share recent publications, translate the
abstracts and post funny facts of fungi (All in spanish).

Tania Kurbessoian is a PhD student that grew up in Los Angeles, California.
She is currently doing her research at the University of California-Riverside with
the guidance of her advisor Dr. Jason Stajich.

Tell us about your project!
Currently I am looking into studying fungi in Desert Biocrusts. Biocrusts
(Biological Soil Crusts) are a complex assemblage of different organisms
(cyanobacteria, eukaryotic algae, lichens, bryophytes, bacteria and fungi) that
all work together to survive in that environmental niche. There are biocrusts
found all over the world in many unusual niches but we have chosen to look
into hot desert environments. These desert biocrusts are considered to be the
desert’s “living skin” and many National Parks have started to consider this and
are conserving their diversity by asking visitors to avoid stepping off the trails.
My work looks into a later successional biocrust composed mainly of lichen and
cyanobacteria. This cyanolichen crust main lichen species is a Collema sp.
which helps us identify the crust when we are looking for more specimens. The
general observations for fungi has indicated a variety of resilient Ascomycetes
but also a propensity to harbor black yeasts. I have been working on culture
dependent and culture independent methods of understanding the fungal
diversity of these biocrusts. Using a combination of minimal media and
antibiotics we’ve been able to isolate, grow and store these fungi. We’re hoping
to understand their function and role in the crusts through a myriad of different
metabolomic and flux testing.
Awards you would like to brag about?
I was the 2019 winner of the Emory Simmons Research Award from MSA!
What are your career goals/plans for after you are done with your current
position?
After finishing up my PhD at UC Riverside- I would like to do a post doc at a
NASA facility. I’m very interested in extremophilic organisms and the possibility
of panspermia depositing life forms onto new planets (this being a hypothesis
for how life started on ours).
What is your favorite fungus and why?
I spend some of my time looking for fungi that are really great specimens to dye
fiber with. Fungal dyes only stick to animal fibers and not plant fibers
(cotton/flax). My favorite fungi that I can get a beautiful dye from is Ompahlotus
olivascens, a west coast relative to Ompalotus olearius. When boiling the
fungus with the wool the natural color that comes out is a gorgeous purple, but
while using an iron mordant we can get a variety of different forest/olive
greens. Both green and purple are my favorite colors! Also these fungi are
spooky and glow in the dark.
What is your favorite fact/thing about fungi?
My favorite thing about fungi is that we still really do not know much about
them. I also love how it can bring a variety of different people from different age
ranges to a table and to marvel at their beauty and diversity.
Who is your mycology role model?
A great conservationist, illustrator, and dabbler in mycology my role model is
Beatrix Potter. Her tenacity and love of arts inspires me to believe that
combining the sciences and art is vital to understand the complexities of this
world.
Any great stories from field work?
Didn’t think I needed hiking boots while collecting crust from Joshua Tree
National Park- the cholla cactus proved me wrong.
What do you like to do in your free time? What are your hobbies?
Other than dyeing fibers with mushrooms- I like to use that wool to create fiber
goods, though it has been some time since I’ve dabbled in it. I also enjoy other
crafts such as needlepoint and tatting (not tattoos, a type of lace making) but
also fermented goods like beer, wine, mead and pickled things.
Anything else you’d like to talk about?
I’ve been working on my science Instagram/Twitter which you are all welcome
to follow me along this journey. Instagram: @BlackYeastUnleashed, Twitter
@BYUnleashed

Rebecca Shay is a PhD student at Michigan State University and is originally from Grand Haven, Michigan. She is currently working in the lab of Dr. Frances Trail. Her primary project focuses on understanding early infection responses of Fusarium graminearum in barley. Specifically, one of her projects looks at a natural defense response in barley trichomes where the barley produces a burst of cellulose and lignin in response to fungal penetration, and she has found a locus in the barley that’s significant in this response and can be used in future plant breeding efforts to help protect plants against Fusarium Head Blight.

What awards have you received during your graduate career?

I’m thankful MSU has such a strong mycology interest, and I’ve been fortunate enough to receive both the A.L. Rogers Fellowship and the Beneke Fellowship which are both mycology-specific! 

What are your career goals?

I’d like to work in industry when I’m done my PhD. I love being able to work in a lab and industry has real-world applications that definitely helps motivate me. 

What is your favorite fungus and why?

I love puffballs. They’re so much fun to puff, and such a good introduction for the public to mushrooms and mycology since they’re easy to identify and entertaining for all ages! 

What is your favorite thing about fungi?

I just love the diversity of fungi, and it’s always fun to talk to non-mycologists about how strange fungi are as a group of organisms. I do a lot of outreach, and it’s always fun to talk about how fungi are more closely related to animals than  plants, and show the vast diversity in morphologies of fungi. 

Who is your mycology role model?

Ruth Allen is one of my role models. She did her PhD at my alma mater (UW-Madison) and was a pioneer for women in botany and plant pathology.

What do you like to do in your free time? What are your hobbies?

I like to hike, bake, knit, and watch TV. I also spend a lot of time making silly hats for my cat Peanut to wear because he tolerates them and is adorably goofy. 

Anything else we should know about you?

Outreach is a great way to make the public less intimidated by scientists! It’s often easy to get involved with already established groups, and mycology is always a good thing to talk about! If you need inspiration, the Student Section has some resources (https://msastudents.org/outreach-materials/)! 

Chance Noffsinger is a native of Whitefish, Montana and currently working in the lab of Dr. Cathy Cripps at Montana State University, Bozeman. Chance’s research focuses on assessing the diversity, distribution, and ecology of the genus Russula in the Rocky Mountain alpine zone. Dr. Cathy Cripps and Chance have found over 150 collections of Russula from the Rocky Mountains and preliminary analysis indicates that at least 10 species are present. However, all of the tentatively identified species were originally described from Europe. Therefore, all Russula collections are being subjected to an in-depth morphological study and a systematic molecular analysis of multiple genetic loci. For the purpose of identification, Rocky Mountain Russula collections will be compared to type specimens or specimens from type localities for all tentatively identified European species. The systematic analysis will also include collections from alpine and Arctic regions worldwide to determine if these Russula species are endemic, intercontinentally distributed, or if cryptic species exist. Chance’s work will also produce a key for the identification of Alpine Russula in the Rocky Mountains which will promote future ecological research into the impact of this important ectomycorrhizal genus because little is known about the species present or how to identify them.

Any awards we should know about?

In 2018 I received the Ben Woo Grant from the Puget Sound Mycological Society to support the cost of my molecular work and I received funding for field work from the John W. Marr Fund based out of the University of Colorado Boulder. I would like to thank both organizations for supporting my research focused on Alpine Russula. Without the support of the Puget Sound Mycological Society and the John. W. Marr Fund my research would not have been possible.

What are your Career goals?

Currently, I’m pursuing a Master’s degree from Montana State University. Following graduation I plan on applying for a PhD program. I’m interested in using genomic data to understand fungal evolution within the Basidiomycota. However, the more I study fungi the more I’m enticed by all aspects of the field and I would consider a broad range of topics for future study. But, I’m also very interested in fungal genetics, molecular clock analysis, genomic analysis, the Russulales, and alpine fungi.

What is your favorite fungus and why?

My favorite fungus is Macowanites luteolus which was recently changed to Russula stricklandorum (Elliott and Trappe 2018). Macowanites used to represent a group of hypogeous russuloid fungi and now molecular analysis has confirmed their placement within the genus Russula. R. stricklandorum is my favorite because they are extremely difficult to find like most hypogeous fungi and upon further examination the collector is pleasantly surprised to see a vestigial stem and a tightly folded egg yolk yellow hymenium. I also enjoy the strong amyloid reaction of the spores which was one of the original microscopic characteristics that drew me into studying the genus Russula.

What is your favorite fact about fungi?

It’s more of a theory than a fact but, I’m very intrigued by the idea that terrestrial fungi predate land plants and possibly assisted them in the colonization of land sometime around 475 million years ago.

Who is your mycology role model?

My mycological role model is definitely my adviser, Dr. Cathy Cripps. Her supportive teaching style and dedication to mycology have helped me grow in numerous ways as a young scientist

Any good stories from the field?

All I’m gonna say is that the view from my field sites at 10,000 feet on the Beartooth Plateau is pretty hard to beat!

What do you like to do in your free time? What are your hobbies?

I enjoy snowboarding in the winter and rock climbing, mushroom hunting, and softball in the summer!

Austin Frewert is a native of Otsego County, NY and is currently a MS student at Washington State University, working in the lab of Dr. Tanya Cheeke.

His research focuses on investigating the efficacy of mycorrhizal fungi and biochar to restore plant communities on abandoned mine sites. His goal is to determine if co-amending highly degraded mine soil with mycorrhizal fungi and biochar will produce synergistic plant responses. Austin is incorporating both, arbuscular and ectomycorrhizal fungi into his experiments by using native soil inoculum from intact reference sites. He looks forward to contributing to the growing body of knowledge of mycorrhizal ecology and ecological restoration. Austin recently received the WSU 2019 Betty Higinbotham Award. Austin is currently searching for a doctorate program that will allow him to pursue a career as a research scientist with a state or federal agency.

What is your favorite fungus and why?

I am partial to the Boletales, so I’d have to say Suillus spraguei. It’s mycorrhizal, and specific to the five-needle pines. It produces a beautiful fruit body and reminds me of my home in upstate N.Y.

Who is your mycology role model?

I’d have to say Dr. Thomas Horton, who turned me on to mycorrhizal ecology and provided me with many great experiences and opportunities as an undergraduate. I would not have the passion for science and the skillset that I do now if it were not for him.

Any great stories from field work?

While working in Sequoia National Park this past summer I was walking through a large open meadow and came within a split second from stepping on an impressively large rattlesnake. My heart sank into my boots and I slowly backed away.  I like to think my habit of scanning the ground for mushrooms is what saved me.

What do you like to do in your free time? What are your hobbies?

Biking, hiking, gardening, binging true crime podcasts, playing saxophone, haiku

Anything else we should know about you?

I am always looking to have a good chat about ecology and future collaborations. After my master’s I want to include fungal genetics and scanning electron microscopy into my doctoral research and bring new approaches to ecological restorations. I look forward to becoming more involved in MSA in 2019

S. Earl Kang, Jr. is a PhD student at the University of Georgia and is originally from Southern California. He is currently working in the lab of Dr. Michelle Momany. His primary project is understanding conidial germination via transcriptomics based approach. Earl is interested in using the transcript expression profiles to develop diagnostic methods for assessing persistent Aspergillus infections. He is also studying environmental impact on evolution of azole resistance in Aspergillus fumigatus and the mechanisms contributing to azole resistance. Several years ago he received a Sustainability Award from the University of California San Diego, his undergraduate institution, for co-founding and being involved in an urban farm/community garden at UCSD (Roger’s Urban Farm aka Roger’s Community Garden & Neighborhood Community Garden). As Earl states, “Sustainable agriculture is very important to me. During my undergrad I spent a significant time learning about sustainable agriculture and exchanging ideas with other like minded folks. This eventually led to starting the farm and my foray into the sciences (my undergrad degree is in Business economics).”

What are your career goals?

I am applying for jobs at companies that use synthetic biology to create novel products for improving materials production, agriculture, and healthcare.

What is your favorite fungus and why?

Fistulina hepatica – beefsteak fungus.

I am amazed by the variety of metabolites fungi are able to produce.  I find it amazing that this particular fungus produces metabolites and proteins which makes the fruiting body bleed red and look like raw meat.  Even more incredible is that when you cook it, it smells just like steak.

If we are able to understand how F. hepatica orchestrates the production of these metabolites/proteins and recreate it in the lab we might be able to change how people view alternative protein sources and change our modern food system.

What is your favorite fact/thing about fungi?

I appreciate all the diverse biological processes fungi have evolved to survive and the rate of adaptation to the ever changing world. Fungi are a wonderful system to study evolution and indicators for how higher eukaryotes may need to learn to adapt to environmental changes in the future (or in space).

Who is your mycology role model?

All the mycologists who unlocked the secrets of fungi through observation without sequencing technology and fluorescent proteins. I really appreciate the knowledge we can still gain from observing old microscopy images to elucidate biological function.

Any great stories from fieldwork?

I like to consider myself as an excellent molecular biologist and strive to maintain a safe work environment. First time in the field looking for azole-resistant Aspergillus fumigatus I wore my personal protective equipment + my farming outfit. Our collaborators couldn’t stop laughing at me, but I assure you that there was no cross-contamination between sites!

What do you like to do in your free time? What are your hobbies?

Wait… grad students get free time? I enjoy creating edible landscapes; cooking and hosting pop-up dinners; discussing ideas, science, politics, and philosophy with friends; and exploring the outdoors with my dog.  I spend a lot of time filling holes in my yard as a result of working on training my dog to sniff out pecan truffles and mushrooms.

Anything else we should know about you?

We live in a really exciting time where technology is allowing us to expedite scientific progress and add to the web of knowledge. Read broadly and expand the limits of your imagination!

Anat Belasen is a PhD candidate at the University of Michigan, originally from upstate New York. She is currently in Tim James’ lab, where she is researching the effects of forest fragmentation on frog health. Specifically, Anat is examining how frog host genetics change with fragmentation, and whether these genetic changes affect susceptibility to fungal pathogens and/or diversity of fungi and other microbes in the frog skin microbiome. When she finishes her PhD, Anat is looking for a post-doc where she can delve deeper into the mechanisms that lead to differences in infection susceptibility. She is thinking about using experimental approaches to examine coevolution between pathogenic fungi and their hosts. Anat was recently awarded a Predoctoral Fellowship from the graduate school at U of M, which she’s pretty excited about! She also thinks it’s pretty cool that she took home an oral presentation award from the Association of Tropical Biology and Conservation a couple of years ago.

What’s your favorite fungus and why?

I love finding Cerioporus squamosus (the scaly polypore) in the park near my house in Ann Arbor. Can’t get enough of that watermelon rind smell!

What is your favorite thing about fungi?

We as humans have so many relationships with fungi – they attack us, they help us, we eat them, we domesticate them, some fear them, many love them.

Any great stories from field work (funny/interesting/something that stuck out to you)?

Once I was out in the field at night in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil with another American student and a couple of Brazilian helpers. We saw what we thought was an extremely rare sighting: a blue Morpho butterfly that was out at night! We oohed and ahhed as it floated toward us… But as it approached, something very strange happened. While Morphos are known to be shy, when this guy got close to us it flew right into our faces (because it was attracted to our headlamps) and kept slapping us with its giant blue wings. It seemed to follow us for nearly half an hour, going from person to person and basically beating us up. A beautiful, serene moment had quickly turned to us being terrorized by this thing! Finally, one of the Brazilians who was out with us told us to turn off our headlamps and walk in darkness for a bit, which worked like a charm – the butterfly finally flew off. Later I talked with an entomologist who told me it actually must have been a Caligo moth, which look a lot like Morphos but are a lot more aggressive, and are notorious for laying the smacks on field biologists who are out at night with headlamps.

What do you like to do in your free time? What are your hobbies?

I love to garden. Nothing is as cool to me as growing my own food from a tiny seed. This year I’m trying out straw bale gardening – it’s basically a cheap and lazy way to make raised beds in any sunny spot in your yard or around your house.

Anything else you’d like to talk about?

Shameless plug: check out my website for info about the outreach and scicomm I’m involved in, as well as some of my favorite photos that I’ve taken in the field – anatbelasen.weebly.com

Edgar M. Medina Tovar, a native of Bogotá, Colombia, is currently a PhD student in the Department of Biology at Duke University. In Dr. Nicolas E. Buchler’s lab, Edgar studies the zoosporic fungus Spizellomyces, to develop this non-model organism into a genetically tractable system. The zoosporic fungi comprise a group of fungal lineages that have a fascinating biology and likely hold many clues to the origin of fungi and the Opisthokonts. Although they are full blown fungi, they are particularly interesting to Edgar because they have retained characteristics from the Opisthokont ancestor that we only tend to associate with animal lineages. These fungi have reproductive spores that lack cell wall, crawl on surfaces and swim with a single posterior cillium nucleated from a centriole. Once they find a suitable niche, the spores retract their cillium, form a cell wall and germinate through a hypha-like structure with polarized growth called rhizoid (all this happens within a couple of hours!). At this stage the germinated spore displays more classical fungal behavior, to eventually produce and release hundreds of new zoospores. Edgar believes the mechanisms that underlie this duality and how it is regulated can provide clues to what lies at the core of what it means to be a fungus and how it deviates from the evolutionary trajectory followed by the animal lineage.

Despite animals and fungi being sibling Opisthokonts, the core transcription factors that control commitment to cell division (E2F and SBF, respectively) and their repressors (Rb and Whi5, respectively) do not appear to have a shared molecular ancestor. Using comparative genomics Edgar showed that SBF, which contains a viral-derived DNA binding domain, was acquired very early in the evolution of fungi by horizontal gene transfer. Also, that this viral-derived transcription factor still coexists with the ancestral E2F in some early-diverging fungi, establishing a hybrid cell cycle control network. Subsequently, the ancestor of Dikarya lost the ancestral E2F and kept SBF. Finally, yeast SBF has an overlapping DNA-binding specificity to that of human E2F. This lead to the working hypothesis of Edgar’s current work: That a viral SBF hijacked cell cycle control in the dawn of Fungi by binding the E2F cis-regulatory sequences of E2F-responsive promoters, and thereby gained the ability to control the G1/S transition and pushing cells to proliferation. Edgar is a recipient of the Duke University School of Medicine Chancellor’s Scholarship in 2012, and for this work, the Meredith Blackwell Award for best grad student talk at MSA 2017. After completing his doctorate, Edgar plans to continue in academia with a postdoctoral position.

What is your favorite fungus and why?

Saccharomyces, if I had to choose one, just as the representative of the hard working guild that brings delicious fermentation products to our life.

What is your favorite thing about fungi?

Fungi are the ultimate éminence grise of the plant world. Fungi are not only arguably the most important plant pathogens, but they rule everything, from plant seed germination to their growth and decay. The establishment of mycorrhizae and endophytism was probably key for the diversification of plants and a necessity for their colonization of land. Also, they are probably the main drivers of nutrient allocation and carbon cycling in our forests. When I see a plant, I see a puppet of a bunch of sly fungi.

Who is your mycology role model?

Much of my current work has strong foundations on the work of Melvin S. Fuller. Reading his papers on zoosporic fungi at a time in which they were emerging as models of cell biology always generates a whirlwind of ideas and reminds me of the power of classical mycology. On the other hand, I think mycology is nowadays such a multidisciplinary science that is hard to have only one role model, so I have many, and would be unfair to say some and leave others out. Nevertheless, a role model should also include characteristics that go beyond “being good at science”. I really look up to PI’s that try to do exciting basic science, do not bend to the “safe fundable zone”, and are great mentors. I am glad there are still many out there and I am lucky to have one as advisor. Unfortunately, it is unclear how you get trained to become a good mentor and is hard to survive and get funded as a PI doing exciting fringe science in the current funding landscape.

What do you do in your free time?

I am all about coffee and food, so I really like cooking and baking. I seem to work with more yeast at home than in the lab. I like sourdough baking and playing with fermentations. Also, I really like road cycling and trail running, allows me to make space to eat even more, though I have relied mostly on running lately because is hard to get the time for long rides and there is an epidemic of bad drivers around here. Also, being in the forest reminds me a bit of home.

Anything else you’d like to share?

I have always liked scientific illustration and I think good figure design is key for a good paper, facilitating communication with the reader. This has led me to sometimes being teased about spending maybe too much time making figures and as my go-to procrastination. I fell in love with it when I discovered Haeckel’s work during my undergrad, fungi have beautiful microscopic and macroscopic structures with incredible elegance.