The Mid-Atlantic States Mycology Conference 2022

The Mid-Atlantic States Mycology Conference 2022

By: Marc Cubeta, Rytas Vilgalys, Brandon Matheny, Julia Kerrigan, Henry Van Cotter & Meredith Blackwell

The Mid-Atlantic States Mycology Conference (MASMC) was held April 22–24, 2022, in Clemson,

Much of the group posing around the day’s catch.

South Carolina, organized by Clemson Professor and MSA President-Elect, Julia Kerrigan. Sixty-seven registrants from Clemson, Cornell, Duke, Francis Marion, Kennesaw State, Louisiana State, North Carolina State,

and Purdue Universities, the Universities of Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee, and West Georgia, as well as Blue Ridge Community College, Western Pennsylvania Mushroom Club, and Gibbs School, attended the conference.

An informal reception was held on Friday night, April 22, at the Clemson Outdoor Laboratory pavilion on Lake Hartwell to welcome meeting participants. On Saturday, students and post-docs provided a total of 28 oral and poster presentations on diverse research topics. These topics included disease-causing fungi of bats, bermudagrass, cacao, coffee, insects, nematodes, and peaches. Medically related topics on a potential improved treatment of often-fatal mucormycosis, using targeted antifungal drug-loaded liposomes, and use of a porcine cornea-based assay as for predicting equine keratitis fungi drug sensitivity were presented. Other presentations discussed research findings and results on fungal biodiversity, community diversity response, endophyte and mycorrhizal symbiosis, environmental change, soil potassium availability/salinity, and succession in forest-based habitats in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, New Hope Creek Corridor, Ross Biological Reserve habitats, and other ecosystems.

Information was also presented on the bioscience-based application of fungi for replacing crustacean chitosan, melanin production for industrial use, visualizing

Morchella sceptriformis made the day’s morel hunt come true.

extracellular polymeric substances in biofilms, agricultural waste as a substrate to produce value-added foods, degradation of the insecticide imidacloprid in stormwater, and Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. Several presentations on the phylogenetics and taxonomy of fungi in the Cantharellales, Porotheleaceae, an enigmatic Ascomycota fungus Polydiscidium martynii and development of a RUSTHUBB herbarium-based resource stimulated much discussion. Rytas Vilgalys presented results of a mycology class research project that compared bacterial and fungal communities from a Tuber-inoculated pine land and a similar uninoculated area at Burwell Truffle Farm in North Carolina.

A group of student presenters discussed educational outreach methods for improving the visibility of mycology in South Carolina. The final oral presentation was provided by Meredith Blackwell, who offered a reward for Lobosporangium transversale (Mortierellaceae), known from three previous collections over a two-year period, but not recollected in more than 50 years. A link to abstracts will be available here. After the presentations concluded, a business meeting was conducted to determine the 2023 MASMC meeting location. The Mycology and Nematology Genetic Diversity Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland, with Lisa Castlebury as host, was later confirmed. Meeting details and information will be released in early 2023. Following the business meeting, participants returned to the Clemson Outdoor Laboratory to attend a dinner at Kresge Hall. During the dinner, Henry Van Cotter was recognized for his contributions to MASMC and the mycology community since the early inception of the conference.

The Purdue University group. They drove the farthest and because they stayed in the field the longest, they missed the group photo.

A foray in honor and memory of Larry F. Grand was conducted on Sunday morning at the South Carolina Botanical Gardens, Clemson, followed by a tailgate luncheon. Madison Musika, an undergraduate student from the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, found the only morel on the foray. Another undergraduate, Mark Anderson, Purdue University, posted his thanks to Clemson for hosting the meeting and giving him the opportunity to present his first poster; see it here. A list of fungal and slime mold species collected during the foray is presented below.

Ascomycota

Acrospermum sp.
Biscognauxia atropunctata
Coccomyces dentatus
Lachnum sp.
Leotia viscosa
Microglossum viride
Morchella sceptriformis (=M. virginiana)
Sclerotinia sclerotiorum
Scorias spongiosa
Urnula craeterum
Xylaria vasconica

Basidiomycota

Agrocybe smithii
Auricularia angiospermarum
Cerioporus (Polyporus) squamosus
Conocybe sp.
Gymnopus alkalivirens
Gymnopus semihirtipes
Gymnopus subsulphureus
Henningsomyces sp. 
Homophron (Psathyrella) spadiceum
Hydrophlebia (Phanaerochaete) chrysorhiza 
Hydnoporia olivacea
Hymenochaete rubiginosa
Hypholoma subviride
Hypoxylon fragiliforme
Hypoxylon multiforme
Irpex lacteus 
Lacrymaria (Psathyrella) velutina
Mucronella calva 
Mutinus ravenellii
Mycena sect. Sacchariferae
Phleogena faginea
Pleurotus ostreatus 
Pluteus cervinus
Pluteus salicinus
Psathyrella sp.
Pseudocoprinus disseminatus
Puccinia sp. (on Smilax)
Russula vinacea
Schizophyllum commune
Stereum gausepatum
Stereum ostrya
Trametes conchifer
Trametes elegans
Trametes versicolor
Tulasnella violea
Xylobolus frustulatus

Myxomycetes

Fuligo septica
Lycogola epidendron
Arcyria denudata
Enteridium lycogala