Do forest fungi prefer to grow in/on specific substrates? Two new papers, including one in Fungal Ecology, examine substrate specificity of boreal forest fungi. doi.org/10.1016/j.fu... doi.org/10.1111/mec.... @tedersoo.bsky.social @drhyfe.bsky.social @sundymaurice.bsky.social

Out Now! Communicating microbiology effectively #MicroSky

Apply to be an editor at an ASM Journal! Open call for editors at mBio, mSphere, mSystems, and Microbiology Spectrum. This is a very fulfilling way to share your expertise and give back to our society journals. @asm.org journals.asm.org/asm-call-for...

The science writing over at @asimovpress.bsky.social is fantastic! From the origin of the lab vortex, to the history of Xenopus, their content is creative, beautiful, and thoughtfully researched. Consider assigning some of their pieces in science courses. www.asimov.press/p/vortex?utm...

The superb lyrebird makes remarkable songs in Australian forests. It also displaces ∼150 tonnes per hectare per year of litter/soil in search of food. A new paper in Fungal Ecology explores how fungi respond to the lyrebird's disturbances: doi.org/10.1016/j.fu... www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjE0...

📣 The deadline for this @britmycolsoc.org.uk special issue on fungal conservation has been extended to 15th March 2026. Spread the word and don’t hesitate to contact @cfemycolab.bsky.social or me if you have any questions. We’re looking forward to receiving your submissions! 🍄

It’s bad. At least a dozen people have ingested Death Cap mushrooms in the Bay Area, especially in the South Bay. We are trying to get the word out with local health and parks agencies and distributing a warning poster in Spanish. Please be careful when picking wild mushrooms. bayareamushrooms.org.

Registration open for #Fungal26 genetics-gsa.org/fungal-2026/ at Asilomar.

🍄🌱 Gardens can be fungal hotspots — if we let them! In this blog for #UKFungusDay, Jassy Drakulic @jassydrak.bsky.social at The RHS explores how garden practices can encourage (or suppress) fungi & why that matters for #SoilHealth & #Biodiversity. www.ukfungusday.co.uk/fungiingardens #Gardening

Such a delight to share our work on the evolution of a cheese rind fungus in @currentbiology.bsky.social. This is the fantastic PhD work of @nicolasleonlouw.bsky.social and resulted from amazing collaborations, a wedding proposal(!), an undergrad course, & more! 🧵 www.cell.com/current-biol...

📣 Call for papers! Special issue of #FungalEcology on “Fungal conservation: from knowledge to actions” co-edited by Susana C. Gonçalves @cfemycolab.bsky.social & Jonathan Cazabonne @jonathancazabonne.bsky.social. Deadline for manuscripts: 31 Jan 2026. Find out more: www.linkedin.com/company/brit...

Thrilled to announce that the special issue on fungal #conservation that @cfemycolab.bsky.social and I are co-editing for the @britmycolsoc.org.uk c.org.uk journal Fungal Ecology is open for submissions! www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu...

New lab pre-print up! "Twelve species of human parasites make up half the literature on microbial eukaryotes" doi.org/10.1101/2025... We (led by UG Joanna Lepper and with @hbrappap.bsky.social) quantified all mentions of protist species in the scientific literature 🧵 #protistsonsky #microsky

We are on the lookout for postdocs for two different projects at the intersection of ecology, evolution, and the human microbiome. See thread for more information and reach out!

Huge thanks to the amazing team at @currentbiology.bsky.social for highlighting fungi in this special issue. Many excellent reviews and perspectives from so many mycological heroes. Lots of great material to use in teaching/outreach. 🍄

We are hiring a postdoctoral scholar to join us in the sometime in the next ~6 months. oliveriolab.org with a focus on microbial eukaryotes in extreme environments. Please email w/CV if you'd like to chat. Official ad soon. #MicroSky #MicrobiomeSky #ProtistsOnSky

Check out my latest paper on fitness costs and benefits of hosting a killer virus if you're a yeast in the forest! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Send us your exciting microbial ecology and evolution manuscripts! Embracing the systems complexity of microbial ecology and evolution: call for papers | mSystems journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Get in dorks, we're going protesting! STAND UP FOR SCIENCE WITH US ON MARCH 7TH, 2025 WASHINGTON DC AND EVERY STATE CAPITOL Because science is for everyone! Find us at standupforscience2025.org #standupforscience2025 #scienceforall #sciencenotsilence

Get in Dorks, we are going protesting. STAND UP FOR SCIENCE. MARCH 7th 12-4pm. DC AND YOUR STATE CAPITALS. More information to come.

Intraspecies associations from strain-rich metagenome samples https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.07.636498v1

And Academic T&P committees, maybe take a beat & consider how the continuous & unsustainable push for CV conspicuous production has been a competitive inhibitor of scientists & scholars being engaged in their communities in meaningful ways as a bulwark to the shitstorm happening now.

That's how it's done! Nice and easy. Good job Mycological Society of America.

Interested in doing a postdoc at the intersection of microbial ecology and agricultural engineering? We are recruiting for a collaborative project with me and Chris Voigt, Darcy McRose, Dave DesMarias, and Sixian You. See project announcement and reach out: jwafs.mit.edu/projects/202...

Our NSF-funded basic research in microbiology is providing useful knowledge/training/data for US food businesses that support rural economies. This workshop was one of the most rewarding projects I've worked on as a scientist. now.tufts.edu/2025/01/28/t...

How does variation in ectomycorrhizal fungal diversity affect tree growth? What are the knowledge gaps to more fully answering this question? See my review out today in Fungal Ecology: doi.org/10.1016/j.fu...

Gentle reminder that if you truly value diversity in the workforce, top down executive orders may/will change implementation but it shouldn’t change your dedication to building the best possible team/group/cohort/generation of researchers

I am super excited to work with @fungaldreamteam.bsky.social‬ as co-EIC at Fungal Ecology! We have amazing editors who prioritize high-quality science and careful review of your manuscripts. Please consider sending your work to Fungal Ecology in 2025!

Have questions about #bioinformatics, #genomics, #evolution or stuck on a project? 🧬💻 I want to help! Happy to discuss data, figures, writing, academia/industry or chatting just for kicks—no strings attached Drop questions below, DM, or schedule a meeting Science together is better than alone 🙌

Everyone talks about "strains", but what are they? Within the lab, we often come back to the review "Diversity within species: interpreting strains in microbiomes" by Thea Van Rossum (2020) when discussing at which phylogenetic resolution we do see different signals www.nature.com/artic...

RP PLS! Iʻm hiring 3 postdocs at U Hawaiʻi to study yeast diversity and evolution, marine fungi, and the genomics of microbiomes in experimental foodwebs. All of these projects have existing datasets and LATITUDE to pursue individual interests and "blue sky" ideas www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/5d7u4...

We are excited to join this growing community! Microbialfoods.org is an education and outreach platform for fermented food consumers, producers, enthusiasts, and scientists. Please check out our website for accessible information about the microbes that make delicious ferments!

I really enjoyed chatting with Mark about the ecology of fermented food microbial communities!

Things get better through long-term thinking, investments in research, wide and welcoming collaborations, honest education, mentorship and sponsorship, not catastrophizing failure, justice, hope, and solidarity. xoxoxo www.scientificamerican.com/article/appl... (13/13)

We're hiring a lab technician to help with high-throughput culturing and other aspects of our research. Please help spread the word. Find out more and apply using the link below. Requisition ID: REQ20156462 usccareers.usc.edu/job/los-ange...

We had fun thinking about the future of fermented foods in this review for @currentbiology.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Happy to share our effort to understand the role of acetic acid bacteria in sourdough starter microbiomes using genomics + synthetic experiments! Led by @hbrappap.bsky.social and w/ @benwolfe.bsky.social @nimshika.bsky.social and @saerobe.bsky.social journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... #microsky

The Camembertpocalypse is fake news! Also proud of my “sweet buttery flatulence” quote. Enjoy your cheese and worry about the big stuff! www.washingtonpost.com/food/2024/03...

I knew long before the rat with a giant penis that Frontiers journals are bad for science. My lab does not publish there, review for them, and we almost never cite Frontiers papers. If we all do this, Frontiers will fade and science will be stronger. www.vice.com/en/article/4...

New paper out from my group - a practical guide to machine learning in microbial ecology. Hope it is useful! journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Please spread the word about 3 tenure track, hard-money microbiome faculty positions. These are well-resourced, come with their own grants, few teaching requirements (but lots of opportunities), potential footprint in our marine lab. www.schooljobs.com/careers/hawa...

Our department is recruiting a tenure-track Assistant Professor on microbial interactions linked to the NCCR Microbiomes nccr-microbiomes.ch Don't miss this opportunity to join a friendly, dynamic department in a city with hard-to-beat quality of life. Apply tinyurl.com/4k2mevax by Jan 31!

Sent out some trainee love on our Slack today. This is a tough time of the year for many for a lot of reasons. Check in on your people and be kind to yourself and others. Grateful for the many folks who have checked in on me in the past. ❤️

Great application of genome-scale metabolic models to understand the dynamics of sourdough starter microbial communities. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Fungi the new book by Lynne Boddy and Ali Ashby is out now 🍄 www.dk.com/uk/book/9780...

Hugely impressed with the quality of genomic/transcriptomic services at @seqcoast.bsky.social! We've processed several orders with them and they are fast, have competitive prices, produce high quality data, and are happy to work with diverse samples from academic researchers. seqcoast.com/services/

Excited to share our review in Annual Review of Microbiology on microbiome assembly in fermented foods. We tried to write an accessible review of the mechanisms/processes that shape microbial communities across a range of ferments. Enjoy! www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10....

Going to need a bigger rain gauge if we keep having rain like we did this summer. This all fell last night in ~ 2 hours. Hoping everyone in Central MA stays safe and dries out soon. (Sorry for inches… I ❤️ metric system!).

Step one in making cheese curd agar.

What is microbial dormancy? -in Trends Microbiol www.cell.com/trends/micro...