Fungus Fair, December 16, 2023 Buy Fungus Fair Tickets Here!

Funky Fungal Farts

Cat Adams

Cat Adams is interested in how chemistry influences interactions between fungi and other living things. Cat earned her Master’s with Anne Pringle at Harvard University, where she researched fungal pathogens of wild Bolivian chili peppers, and how the fungi evolved tolerance to spice. For her PhD in Tom Bruns’ lab at UC Berkeley, Cat studied the chemical ecology of Amanita phalloides, the death cap mushroom. She also collaborated with Fayuan Wang, studying how arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi can help plants cope with nanoparticle pollution. Now as a postdoc at UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in Louise Glass’s lab, Cat researches the root-associated fungus Trichoderma atroviride, and how its fungal farts impact plants and bacteria.

Talk

Funky Fungal Farts

Much like us humans, fungi can fart. In other words, they release chemicals (Volatile Organic Compounds, or VOCs) that can float in the air and wreak havoc on whoever smells them. In this talk, Cat will attempt to answer the following two questions: Why should we care about VOCs? What is known about VOCs from fungi, and how do other living things deal with those farts? She will end with some of her recently acquired postdoc data on whether funky fungal farts from Trichoderma atroviride inhibit rhizosphere bacteria!

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Past Fairs

The Mycological Society of San Francisco has been hosting 1 or 2 Fungus Fairs each year since 1969. Fairs have been held in San Francisco County, Alameda County, San Mateo County, and Marin County. Historical information is available about previous Fungus Fairs:

• Species Lists
• Fair Posters