MycoPhyGoLife Annual Meeting -- October 6-9, 2017

The MycoPhyGolife annual meeting/workshop took place at Duke University on October 6-9. The Lutzoni lab had the pleasure to host on campus all fourteen participants from four collaborating teams (in addition to the Duke team). A total of 18 researchers participated, including one undergraduate student, four Ph.D. students (one woman), one postdoc, four international collaborators and two invited speakers (two women). The main goals of the workshop were to: explore the new tools available in T-BAS; discuss how to further develop a common database within T-BAS; share updates on research progress for the samplings in Panama and Chile; and take a decision about the next collecting trip (see the detailed schedule). Great meeting (scientifically and socially)!

 

MycoPhyGoLife annual meeting – Duke University, Durham, NC October 6 - 9, 2017

 

Participants:

 

University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ) team:

Betsy Arnold (PI)

Shuzo Oita (Ph.D. student)

Nathaniel Yang (undergrad)

 

University of Connecticut (Storrs, CT) team:

Louise Lewis (PI)

Lisa Terlova (Ph.D. student)

 

Duke University (Durham, NC) team:

François Lutzoni (PI)(919 402-6787)

Jolanta Miadlikowska (Co-PI)

Nicolas Magain (Postdoc)

Ian Medeiros (Ph.D. student)

 

NC State University (Raleigh, NC) team:

Ignazio Carbone (PI)

 

University of Mississippii (Oxford, MS) team:

Erik Hom (PI)

Michael Clear (Ph.D. student)

 

Collaborators:

Alicia Ibáñez (Panama)

Adam Flakus (Prof. Polish Academy of Science, Krakow, Poland)

József Geml (Prof. Leiden University, The Netherlands)

Reinaldo Vargas (Prof. Universidad Metropolitana de Ciencias de la Educación, Santiago de Chile, Chile)

 

Invited speakers/collaborators:

Jana U'Ren (Prof. U of A, Tucson, AZ)

Ko-Hsuan Chen (Postdoc, University of Florida, Tallahassee, FL)

 

Location: the Link (087) Classrooms 2 and 3 in the Perkins library (West Campus).

 

Schedule:

 

Thursday, Oct. 5:

Arrival to Durham

 

Friday, Oct. 6:

Morning:  Sampling at the Sarah Duke Botanical Garden by the Arnold lab.

Arrival of the remaining participants

 

Saturday, Oct. 7

9:00 AM: François – Introduction to the workshop and T-BAS

 

9:10 AM: Ignazio Carbone– Description of the multiple functions of T-BAS

 

9:30 AM: Betsy Arnold– Results from pre-Panama sampling and results from Panama sampling: demonstration and insights using T-BAS, including selection of the first 50 strains for genome sequencing

 

10:30 AM: Coffee/tea break

 

11:00 AM: Betsy Arnold & Ignazio Carbone– Hands on mini-workshop on how to use T-BAS with provided example dataset (bring your laptops)

 

12:30 PM: Lunch at West Union

 

2:00-2:20 PM: Ko-Hsuan Chen – Evolution of Fungal Endophytes and Their Functional Transitions Between Endophytism and Saprotrophism

 

2:20-2:40 PM: Michael Clear & Erik Hom – Results from co-culture experiments

 

2:40-3:00 PM: François Lutzoni (moderator)– Discussion about future co-culture experiments

 

3:00 PM: Coffee/tea break

 

3:30-5:30 PM:  Small group sessions at the link or edge

 

Group 1: Adam, Ian and Reinaldo – Identification of lichen material from Panama and Chile, and visit to the Duke Herbarium if needed.

 

Group 2: Alicia, Nathaniel and Shuzo – plating material collected by the Arnold lab on multiple media, with the aim of evaluating additional media that might increase species or phylogenetic richness of endophytes in culture.

 

Group 3: Erik, Ko-Hsuan, Lisa and Michael – Co-culture techniques with Dicranum scoparium for comparison with co-cultures with algae/cyanobacteria.

 

Group 4: Betsy, József and François – Evaluation of Ion Torrent data for Québec transect study.

 

Group 5: workshop to include new tree in T-BAS with the help of Ignazio

 

  • Jana: Xylariaceae, Pezizomycetes
  • Jola: Lecanoromycetes
  • Louise: Chlorophytes
  • Nic: Cyanobacteria, Peltigera

 

Sunday, Oct. 8:

9:00AM-12:00PM: Free time or small working groups.

 

One working group is planned at this time: defining OTU/species within T-BAS, and master database that links our algal/fungal/plant/lichen/soil/etc. collections with metadata. Everyone is welcome to join or to establish other working groups.

 

12:00-1:00 PM: Lunch at West Union

 

Mini-symposium on results from Panama and Chile fieldwork

 

1:20-1:40 PM: Adam Flakus – Lichens and lichenicolous fungi of Panama

 

1:40-2:00 PM: Jószef Geml – Comparison of soil fungal communities of Panama, Argentina and Borneo using next generation amplicon sequencing

 

2:00-2:20 PM: Alicia Ibáñez and Betsy Arnold – Summary of plant collections and botanical perspectives in the context of the Nagoya Protocol

 

2:20-2:40 PM: Nicolas Magain, Jolanta Miadlikowska and François Lutzoni – Contribution of Peltigera sampled in Panama and Chile to world-wide spatio-temporal patterns of symbiotic specificity between fungi and Nostoc

 

2:40-3:20 PM: Coffee/tea break

 

3:20-3:40 PM:  Shuzo Oita and Betsy Arnold – Diversity of foliar endophytes from Panama as a function of leaf traits, plant communities, and local taxa

 

3:40-4:00 PM: Lisa Terlova, Michael Clear, Erik Hom and Louise Lewis – Results from algal sampling in Panama and Chile

 

4:00-4:20 PM: Jana U'Ren and Betsy Arnold – Endophytic and endolichenic fungal biodiversity and communities of the boreal biome

 

4:20-4:40 PM: Reinaldo Vargas – Lichens from Chile

 

4:40-5:00 PM: Nathaniel Yang and Betsy Arnold–Preliminary assessment of endophytes from Araucaria in Nahuelbuta National Park, Chile

 

5:00-6:00 PM: Open general discussion

 

Monday, Oct. 9:

9:00-10:30 AM: Organization of field work in South Africa and Borneo

 

10:30-11:00 AM: Coffee break

 

11:00 AM-12:30 PM: Discussion on building a common database

 

End of meeting…