Collaborations
Erin Grey
Dr. Erin Grey (www.egreylab.com) and I have on-going work in a range of areas including linking eDNA metabarcoding to aquatic fungi. In the past, we have examined fungi in sea grass (Zostera spp.) roots, optimized DNA extraction methods from blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) megalopae, deployed eDNA tools in hemi-marshes, and worked on numerous other projects.
Current UMaine collaborations exist with Shawn Fraver and students in School of Forest Resources (fungi involved in coarse wood debris decay) and with Seanna Annis and students in the School of Biology and Ecology (fungi associated with blueberry roots).
My studies with Ina Meier and Rich Phillips found that pine seedling root exudates are tightly linked to fungal trophic type. This study has important consequences for understanding carbon and nutrient cycling hypotheses and illustrates that pathogen fungi more than other types are key in understanding root exudates: Meier I, Avis P.G., Phillips P. 2013. Fungal communities influence root exudation rates in tree seedlings. FEMS Microbiology Ecology. 83(3):585-95.
My studies with a set of sand dune geologists aided in uncovering the role of fungi in the formation of “Devils Stovepipes”: Argyilan EP, Avis PG, Krekeler MPS, Morris CC. 2015. The origin of collapse features appearing in a migrating parabolic dune along the southern coast of Lake Michigan. Aeolian Research. 19:137-149. A series of follow-up studies is in progress and described the fungi of Mt. Baldy using MiSeq metabarcoding as well as targeted sequencing to identify the ubiquitous presence of Armillaria gallica rhizomorphs across Mt. Baldy.
I was also involved in the first study to comprehensively describe important fungal communities in oak savannas in the midwest: Dickie I.A., Dentinger B.T.M., Avis P.G., McLaughlin D.J., Reich P.B. 2009. Ectomycorrhizal fungal communities of oak savanna are distinct from forest communities. Mycologia 101(4):473-483. This work continues today with a MiSeq sequencing study underway in the globally threatened black savanna of the Indiana Dunes National Park.
My work with Matt Keirle has contributed to the understanding of an important saprophytic fungus endemic to Hawaii. Our work documented intriguing and unexpected patterns of genetic marker diversity (e.g. IGS variation) and evolution (imperfect microsattelites) that challenge conventional models of molecular evolution: Keirle M.R., Avis P.G., hemmes D.E. Mueller G.M. 2014. Testing the “one-log-one-genet” hypothesis: methodological challenges of population sampling for the Hawaiian wood-decay fungus Rhodocollybia laulaha. Mycologia. 106(5):896-903. Keirle M, Avis PG, Mueller G. 2012. Limited Divergence in the Spatially Subdivided Population of the Hawaiian Mushroom Rhodocollybia laulaha. Botany, 2012, 90(11): 1103-1112. Keirle M.R., Avis P.G., Mueller G., Hemmes D. 2011. Investigating the Allelic Evolution of an Imperfect Microsatellite Locus in the Hawaiian Mushroom Rhodocollybia laulaha. Journal of Heredity 102(6):727-734. Keirle M.R., Avis P.G., Mueller G., Hemmes D. 2011. Variability in the IGS1 region of Rhodocollybia laulaha: is it allelic, genomic, or artificial? Fungal Biology 115(3):310-316. Keirle, M.R., Avis, P.G., Desjardin, D.E.,Hemmes, D.E., Mueller, G.M. 2010. Geographic origins and phylogenetic affinities of the only putative Hawaiian endemic Rhodocollybia. Mycotaxon 112:463-473.