2022 Fall Seminar Series Presents

Dr. Lotus Lofgren

Postdoctoral Research Associate
Tri-I MMPTP (NIH T-32) Research Fellow
Dept. of Biology, Duke University, Vilgalys Lab

WHEN:  Dec. 2, 2022, at Noon
WHERE:   Seminar will be presented via Zoom and also in person in the North Classroom, Room 1207.

Please email jacki.craig@ucdenver.edu to receive the Zoom Meeting Link. Requests can be submitted any time before the Seminar but not after 10:00am the day of the seminar.

Leveraging Ecological Plasticity to Inform Fungal Community Dynamics

Fungi are so primary to bionetworks that they are thought to interact in some way with every species on Earth. These interactions take on a myriad of forms, with fungi playing roles ranging from obligate mutualists to deadly pathogens, while the number of interaction partners can range from a single species to thousands. However, the dynamics between fungi and their surrounding communities can be plastic over both evolutionary time, and over the lifetime of individuals, structured by a plethora of poorly understood biotic and abiotic factors. These context-dependent ecological relationships have important implications that span medicine, agriculture, and forestry. Using multiple fungal study systems, we investigate how exceptional examples of ecological plasticity can inform both complex systems and seemingly straightforward examples of species that are canonical representatives of a single guild, host-specificity relationship, or life-history. 

Everyone is welcome to join the seminar, please email jacki.craig@ucdenver.edu to receive the Zoom link. Requests can be submitted any time before the seminar but not after 10:00am the day of the seminar.