Hi everyone,
If anyone is interested, the MSA (Mycological Society of America) meeting this summer is being held jointly with the botanical and other societies. It is a virtual meeting this year so registration is inexpensive at just $50.00.
The dates are July 19-23, 2021.
To register and for more information:
https://msafungi.org/2021-msa-annual-meeting/
Cathie
Hi all,
I just wanted to share a new paper with you that might be helpful for anyone interested in describing new species or new combinations. We've tried to consolidate all the information anyone new to species descriptions might need:
https://imafungus.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s43008-021-00063-1
Cathie
Hi everyone,
We are (finally) reaching the homestretch on the MycoBlitz sequencing. All specimens have been attempted at the ITS locus, and if those failed, have been attempted at the LSU locus. We have approximately 100 remaining samples that we could not amplify at either locus and will make one final attempt to trouble shoot and amplify those in the next month.
Over the summer I will be compiling all the data to see what new findings etc. arose from this study and I will keep you posted on progress.
In the meantime, I hope everyone is well. If you have any questions about your results thus far please let me know.
Cathie
Hi everyone,
Just a couple of updates for you as we head into the holiday season.
Happy thanksgiving and happy mushrooming,
Cathie
Hi everyone,
Thanks to everyone who's been giving feedback on the project; I really appreciate it.
There have been a few repeated themes in some of the questions, so I have been thinking about trying to hold a virtual workshop for any MycoBlitz participants who are interested in learning a little more about sequence editing or Blast interpretation.
If you think this is something you would be interested in, please fill out this form here:
https://forms.gle/qRmYJoDGpQ74UGYs8
I'm afraid my schedule is a bit crazy, but hopefully we can find a date to do this if there's interest.
I'm nearly finished with editing and posting about 300 new barcodes this week; look for another hundred to go up tonight and over the weekend.
take care
cathie
Hi everybody,
As of tonight we have completed all processing and data posting for 1/2 of your submissions. Look for several hundred more sequences going up in the next week.
Hope you are all staying safe and well
Cathie
Hi everybody,
We're looking for some fresh L. connata in my lab. If anyone comes across it and wants to contribute to our study, please send me an email.
Thanks!
Cathie
I'm attaching here a link to an open access publication that discusses the pros, pitfalls, and how to's of DNA barcoding and species identification for anyone interested. This also explains some of the methodology used by the MycoBlitz in applying names to your species. Happy Monday everyone.
https://imafungus.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s43008-020-00033-z
Cathie
Dear MycoBlitz participants,
Hello from the 2019 Mycoblitz! I hope everyone is safe and well and enjoying the summer.
I know a lot of you are wondering what’s happened to the project during COVID-19—Purdue, like so many Universities, shut down in March and we were unable to return to the lab until mid-June. So now that we’re back, I thought this would be a good time to give you all an update on where we are with the project and when we hope to finish.
Thanks to all of you who participated, the forays were a success. We received more than 1250 specimens at Purdue that were selected for sequencing and accessioning. All of these were in various stages of processing at the time of the shut-down. Our processing steps include: Initial quality control of submissions and logging receipt; DNA extraction; DNA amplification of the fungal barcode (ITS) region; barcode sequencing; sequence editing and validation; tentative IDs based on sequence and specimen data; specimen accessioning and databasing into the Kriebel Herbarium (PUL); and final conservation, boxing, and storing of specimens in perpetuity. At each step along the way, we provide feedback in iNat on the observation page for each specimen as it passes through each step.
Our original funded timeline was to complete this work by the end of July 2020. And then COVID came. I just want you to know that during the shutdown we have been doing as much of this work as possible from home – this includes a lot of back-end stuff you wouldn’t normally see, things like conserving, boxing, and accessioning specimens, taking tissue samples for DNA extraction, etc. But the bench work (i.e., the actual DNA extractions and barcode sequencing) and work that requires specialized lab software (sequence editing and herbarium databasing) have not been possible as we have not been able to work in the lab.
The good news is that our lab was granted permission to begin restricted operations at the end of June, and, the herbaria were just granted permission. However, we still have limited access (for instance only two people can work at one time in the lab, and I have 15 other people with projects trying to work this summer!), and so progress is still likely to be slower than it would have been. We are also experiencing delays in getting data back from our outside sequencing service. Altogether we are now projecting a completion timeline of the end of October/November 2020.
What does this mean for you, if you submitted samples? Keep checking and tracking your sample information on iNat—this is the official repository for all MycoBlitz data and is constantly and conscientiously updated by our team. Sequence data that have been pasted in iNat are verified to the best of our ability and free for you to use in any downstream applications that you wish. All we ask is, if you publish these in another data repository such as GenBank, that you drop us a note to that effect so that we don’t end out duplicating efforts when we make our final grant report. If you need additional information for deposition, such as who to credit for sequence generation, editing, identification or how to credit the funding source, just ask. I will do my best to respond within 24 hours.
Otherwise I will upload all sequences to GenBank at the end of the project and note the accession numbers for you in iNAT. At the end of the project we will also be uploading all of your PUL accession data into MycoPortal (https://mycoportal.org/portal/index.php).
We are in the process of changing some of the observation fields in iNat for easier use and communication, so be on the lookout to changes in the way your data are returned. And I am constantly updating IDs (under MycoBlitz ID) to the best of my ability as I examine sequences and specimens:
And here’s the link to the MycoBlitz website, where we will also start posting more updates as time permits:
https://aimelab.wixsite.com/aimelab/copy-of-mycoblitz
Several people have emailed me to ask if they can still send in specimens. The answer is yes! If you have specimens collected during the two one-week forays (August 12–19, 2019 and October 20–27, 2019) that you haven’t had time to submit yet, go ahead and send them to me at the address below, and shoot me an email when you’ve done so so I can keep a lookout for them (we still don’t have regular departmental mail service).
This has been a very strange and hectic time in academia; I hope you and your families have all been doing well and still logging some time for fungi! And I hope you will continue to bear with us as we strive to get all the rest of your data back to you as quickly as possible. Finally, I would like to thank each and every one of you who participated, advertised, or promoted this project.
Stay well everyone and feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions.
Happy mushrooming!
Cathie Aime
Professor of Mycology
Director of the Arthur and Kriebel Herbaria
Purdue University Faculty Scholar
Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Purdue University
915 W. State Street
West Lafayette, IN 47901 USA
Email: maime@purdue.edu
Website: https://aimelab.wixsite.com/aimelab
