Dual-mycorrhizal colonization is determined by plant age and host identity in two species of Populus

I am a PhD student studying an enigmatic group of fungi termed "mycorrhizal" that associate with plants' roots to help them acquire nutrients from soil. I study these fungi in their native habitat as well as in controlled greenhouse experiments using primarily molecular methods to understand 1) how environmental factors affect fungal communities and 2) how fungal communities affect nutrient cycling between soil and plants. Currently my work is focused on the fungal communities of quaking aspens growing in the arid west.

My scientific work includes traditional and modern research approaches to studying all areas of mycology including systematics, evolution, medical mycology, plant pathology, genetics/genomics, and ecology.  I am best known for my involvement in the transition of fungal systematics from a non-quantitative, largely morphologically based science to the rigorous genome-based discipline that it is today.  For the past 20 years, my lab has been increasingly involved in the study of fungal “ecogenomics” using targeted and shotgun metagenomics which link molecular function with fungal diversity.  In collaboration with medical mycologists and basic scientists at Duke Medical Center, I have also helped to bring an evolutionary biology perspective toward the study of human mycoses.