On 25th day of #WomensHistoryMonth I am celebrating our collaborator, incredible #plantpathologist & director of Tropical Plant Clinic & Research Lab, Dr. Romina Gazis. Her #research is focused on #microbial #diversity, #fungal #endophytes & #HostPathogenInteractions. trec.ifas.ufl.edu/faculty/romina…

⁦the great debate about the best name for “Laetiporus” persicinus rages on. Please check out this excellent new paper by Claudia Paez and collaborators (including @ForestPathology⁩) tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

Very proud of the Champions for Change award for the McCarty Woods Restoration Project!! Sustainable UF Soltis Lab @UF @FLAS_herb Florida Museum thanks to Mariela Pajuelo for the photo!

The Smith Fungal Biology Lab at the University of Florida is looking for a full-time research technician to work on several ongoing projects related to fungal systematics, ecology, and evolution. Details are below! Questions? email <[email protected]>

Cathie Aime was recently awarded the Josef Adolf von Arx Award from the Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute, reserved for individuals who has made an outstanding contribution to taxonomic research of fungal biodiversity, marking a distinguished career in mycology. Congrats!

New publication by PhD student Ben Lemmond on accidental cultivation of Tuber brumale in the USA. Thanks also to our excellent collaborators Greg Bonito and Alassane Sow from Michigan State. link.springer.com/article/10.100…

A nice news piece with coverage on the recent paper by Ben Lemmond and collaborators: blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/news/2023/06/2… UF/IFAS Plant Pathology Department UF/IFAS College of Agricultural and Life Sciences

Congratulations to @ufplantpath faculty members on their tenure and promotions: Dr. Romina Gazis and Dr. Ozgur Batuman have been promoted to the rank of Associate Professor and awarded tenure. Dr. Mathews Paret and Dr. Matthew Smith have been promoted to the rank of Professor.

Connecting the multiple dimensions of global soil fungal diversity: a comprehensive 6-dataset analysis of drivers of alpha, beta, gamma and phylogenetic diversity of fungi globally by Vladimir Mikryukov and co-workers. science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

Domestication through clandestine cultivation constrained genetic diversity in magic mushrooms relative to naturalized populations: Current Biology cell.com/current-biolog…

Assistant Professor of Forest Pathology at the University of Florida. So much fungus! Search chaired by Jiri Hulcr if you have questions. explore.jobs.ufl.edu/en-us/job/5295…

Please check out this excellent new article by Nattapol Kraisit and collaborators on phylogenomics of bird's nest fungi. authors.elsevier.com/c/1iSDD3m3nNE2…

Take a trip through the evolutionary history of the mushroom genus Psilocybe . The genes for the psychoactive compound psilocybin were transferred horizontally between species up to five times between 40 million and 9 million years ago. In PNAS: ow.ly/42uV50QsGxU

Congratulations to Dr. Claudia Paez and our other co-authors on this new paper describing Parvodontia relampaga - the causal agent of relampago blight of woody plants in Florida, USA (sciencedirect.com/science/articl…)

What is the most common fungus in Florida? it might very well be this putatively introduced mushroom species, Marasmius vagus: edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/PP… The rapid expansion of the range of this fungus in Florida is captured nicely by Sarah Prentice in this new extension document

I’ve enjoyed recent debates about common mycorrhizal networks and the #woodwideweb as well explained in this nice @nature_news piece by Aisling Irwin BUT I disagree with one misconception that I think is being propagated in these discussions 1/n nature.com/articles/d4158…

Elated to share that this January, I’ll be opening the doors to the Lofgren Mycology Laboratory at Berkeley in the Berkeley Plant & Microbial Biology dep. Our group will work on the ecology and evolution of fungi and their hosts, with a focus on ectomycorrhizal symbiosis, metabolism, and genomics.

Check out the new paper in Mycologia by Alassane Sow et al. - a collaboration by our lab and Greg Bonito's lab at MSU describing two edible North American truffles. @BenLemmond Jud Van Wyk : tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

Excited about our new paper in the journal Mycorrhiza by Marcos Vinicius Caiafa Sepulveda Michelle Jusino Elena Karlsen-Ayala and others in the Smith Lab. One of the first papers to examine the ectomycorrhizal fungi of North American Cistaceae plants: link.springer.com/article/10.100…

Cool truffle article in Science Magazine that is worth checking out: sciencemagazinedigital.org/sciencemagazin…