News
SO. MUCH. NEWS.
This last year was quite a blur…Here’s what happened:
Departures:
Post-doc Fouad El Baidouri left us for a researcher position with the Neafsy Lab at Harvard/Broad. Gone, but not forgotten!
Dr. Andre Boraks successfully defended his PhD and is off to work with the International Conservation Fund of Canada. A hui hou!
Joani Villiunas is heading downhill to work on glowing squid in the McFall-Ngai lab.
Sean Swift has moved on to persue his PhD in the Craig Nelson lab.
Anthony’s on sabbatical through January 2022
Welcome to the lab:
Undergraduates Bryson Gonzalez, Chloe Twitchell, Max Gatlin and Tyler Stynes have been hard at work isolating marine fungi for our growing culture collection.
Isabel McRae is also helping out for the summer while on break from UCLA.
Congratulations:
Ronja Steinbach for her NOAA EPP MSI award and for receiving the UH Conservation Award to study marine fungal metabolism of plastics! Great job!
Danyel Yogi for receivig an NSF REL supplement to fund her continuing work with Marine Malassezia.
Read all about it:
Boraks, A., Plunkett, G. M., Doro, T. M., Alo, F., Sam, C., Tuiwawa, M., … & Amend, A. S. (2021). Scale-dependent influences of distance and vegetation on the composition of aboveground and belowground tropical fungal communities. Microbial Ecology, 81(4), 874-883.
Egan, C. P., Koko, J. H., Muir, C. D., Zahn, G., Swift, S. O., Amend, A. S., & Hynson, N. A. (2021). Restoration of the mycobiome of the endangered Hawaiian mint Phyllostegia kaalaensis increases its resistance to a common powdery mildew. Fungal Ecology, 52, 101070.
Bernard, J., Wall, C. B., Costantini, M. S., Rollins, R. L., Atkins, M. L., Cabrera, F. P., … & Amend, A. S. (2021). Plant part and a steep environmental gradient predict plant microbial composition in a tropical watershed. The ISME Journal, 15(4), 999-1009.
Tipton, L., Zahn, G. L., Darcy, J. L., Amend, A. S., & Hynson, N. A. (2021). Hawaiian Fungal Amplicon Sequence Variants Reveal Otherwise Hidden Biogeography. Microbial Ecology, 1-10.
Chock, M. K., Hoyt, B., & Amend, A. S. (2021). Mycobiome transplant increases resistance to Austropuccinia psidii in an endangered Hawaiian plant. Phytobiomes Journal.
New monograph by Gerry and others on Holarctic Pluteus
Molecular phylogeny and phylogeography of Holarctic species of Pluteus section Pluteus (Agaricales: Pluteaceae), with description of twelve new species.
Congratulations Gerry!
Malassezia paper is out in PLOS Pathogens
Check out the latest PLoS Pearl about marine fungi and coral dandruff: From Dandruff to Deep-Sea Vents: Malassezia-like Fungi are Ecologically Hyper-diverse
We have scopes!
They’re here! Rick Gardner, from Zeiss, has kindly flown over to set up our fancy new microscopes. With DIC and epi-fluorescence capabilities, pesky little microbes will have nowhere to hide.
Gerry and Kami are awarded NSF GRFP Fellowships!
BOTH Gery and Kami were funded for three years through NSF. Gerry is studying the evolution and assembly processes of Hawaiian endophytes and Kami is studying the physiology and determinants of Fungal composition in Corals. Way to go both of you!
Jerry Koko joins the lab!
Jerry is pitching in on our endophyte project before joining the Hynson Fungal lab in the fall. Thanks Jerry!