Please join SOMA and Chris Bivins, PhD candidate of UC Merced, at the Sebastopol Grange at 6pm on October 25th, 2024 – and costumes are encouraged!
Fungi (and their DNA) are practically everywhere: in soil, in water, and on the inside and outside of other organisms. A relatively novel DNA sequencing technique, called “metabarcoding,” allows scientists to sequence fungal DNA from nearly all of the members of a fungal community within nearly any type of substrate, whether that be soil, water, or the tissues of other organisms.
In this upcoming talk, Chris Bivins will share results from a variety of projects utilizing metabarcoding including:
- the symbiotic relationships between mycorrhizal fungi and mycoheterotrophic plants
- how Cynipid gall wasps influence fungal communities
- hypogeous/truffle-forming fungi in the Sierra Nevada mountains