Kabir Peay’s research is filling critical gaps in our understanding of how mycorrhizal fungi respond to climate change through his use of large-scale DNA sequencing, biogeographic modeling, and manipulative experiments. Mutualisms forged by mycorrhizal fungi critically affect the resistance and resilience of forest trees faced with climate change, which impacts the carbon cycle through effects on...

The Bose lab studies microbial metabolisms and their influence on biogeochemical cycling using a transdisciplinary approach. We apply the knowledge we gain to generate new ways of addressing issues such climate change, sustainability, and the circular economy. My lab’s recent work has focused on the ability of microbes to use solid-phase conductive materials as electron donors. The ability to use...

Robustness in organ development is the formation of the reproducible organ sizes and shapes despite perturbations in the environment, stochastic (or random) gene expression, and cellular variability. Development is remarkably robust, producing plant organs such as leaves and sepals with the same size and shape repeatedly from individual to individual. Yet, these reproducible organs are composed...

In the talk I will highlight two convergent transitions in complexity level in fungi, the emergence of complex multicellularity and the reductive evolution of unicellular yeast-like fungi; and will explore how these transitions can be used to learn something about the general principles of convergent evolution.