Dr. Jessie Uehling
Assistant Professor of Fungal Biology
Oregon State University

WHEN:  Oct. 23, 2020 at Noon
WHERE: Seminar will be presented via Zoom

Zoom Meeting
https://ucdenver.zoom.us/j/91048440693, Meeting ID: 910 4844 0693

Fungal endosymbiont evolution: insights into mechanisms, diversity, and ubiquity from the Mucoromycota fungi

The generation of thousands of fungal genomes has enabled many recent advancements in biological research via re-analyses. Among these insights are the detection and characterization of bacterial associates living inside of fungal hyphae. These genomic data sets can be curated to enable key novel biological inferences into endobacterial abundance, diversity, functioning, and ubiquity. The Uehling lab uses systems biology approaches to merge genomics data seeking to understand mechanisms of fungal endosymbiotic evolution. These intrahyphal bacteria are ubiquitous in some fungal groups and share genomic hallmarks of adaptation to the intracellular environment such as genome contraction and characteristic gene losses. Further, antibiotic clearing of bacteria can be leveraged to generate fungi in the same genomic background with and without endobacteria which then allow comparative assessment of host-endosymbiont interaction mechanisms. This talk will detail the Betaproteobacterial associates of Mucoromycota fungi, using Mortierella elongata and Mycoavidus cysteinexigens as a model system to gain insights into how these poly-microbial symbioses evolve.

Everyone is welcome to join the seminar, please see the Zoom link above.