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the Taylor lab

lee.taylor AT iab.alaska.edu

Fungi have a 1 billion year evolutionary history, number perhaps 1.5 million species, and are hence extremely diverse phylogenetically and functionally. They play dominant roles in decomposition of recalcitrant substrates and plant nutrient acquisition, and thus influence net primary productivity, carbon sequestration in soil, and the biogeochemical cycling of key elements such as nitrogen and phosphorus. Despite their importance, fungi have often been ignored in ecological studies. Our goal is to understand how the evolutionary history of fungi has shaped their ecology, present distribution, and their communities.

Lab photo - 2005

People who frequent the lab :

• Mike Anderson
• Daphne Attla
• Liz Bent
• Michael Booth
• Luke Bruner
• Robert Burgess
• József Geml
• Daniel Glass
• John Haight
• Ian Herriott
• Sarah Hopkins
• Thomas Larsen
• Jack McFarland
• Lee Taylor (PI)
• Ina Timling

Collaborators:

• Gary Andersen
• Todd Desantis
• John Freudenstein
• Shawn Houston
• Gary Laursen
• Mary Beth Leigh
• James Long
• Melissa McCormick
• Chad Nusbaum
• Matthew Olson
• Clare Robinson
• Roger Ruess
• Jyotsna Sharma
• Donald (Skip) Walker
• Jeff Welker
• Dennis Whigham

Former lab members:

• Seth Adams
• Michelle Augustyn
• Britt Arnesen
• Kelley Calhoun
• Shelley DeWilde
• Jessica Eichmiller
• Hope Gray
• Lisa Grubisha
• Scott Hayden
• Dan Hepler
• Scott Hillard
• Jason Hunt
• La Tia Jackson
• Mitali Patil
• Cortney Pylant
• Keane Richards

Useful Items:

Search all GenBank Fungal ITS or LSU Sequences With or Without Environmental Sequences

PCR Primers for Orchid Fungi

Funded projects:

IPY: A Community Genomics Investigation of Fungal Adaptation to Cold

Metagenomics of Alaskan Fungi (view the BioScience article or listen to the report on the Alaska Public Radio Network to learn more about the project)

Mycorrhizal Evolution in the Corallorhizinae (Orchidaceae)

Impacts of Fungi on Orchid Distribution

Bonanza Creek Long Term Ecological Research (LTER)

EPSCoR Population Genetics

Publications:

Geml J, Laursen GA, Taylor DL.  2008.  Molecular diversity assessment of arctic and boreal Agaricus taxa.  Mycologia 100: 577-589.

Geml J, Tulloss RE, Laursen GA, Sazanova NA, Taylor DL.  2008.  Evidence for strong inter- and intracontinental phylogeographic structure in Amanita muscaria, a wind-dispersed ectomycorrhizal basidiomycete. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 48(2): 694-701.

Tranchida Lombardo V, Hopkins SE, Selosse MA, Cozzolino S and Taylor DL.  2008.  Isolation and characterization of new polymorphic microsatellite loci in the mixotrophic orchid Limodorum abortivum L. Swartz (Orchidaceae).  Molecular Ecology Resources 8(4): 742-752.

Taylor DL, Booth MG, McFarland JW, Herriott IC, Lennon NJ, Nusbaum C & Marr TG.  2008.  Increasing ecological inference from high throughput sequencing of fungi in the environment through a tagging approach.  Molecular Ecology Resources 8(4): 742 - 752.  Supplemental Material - Table S1.

Taylor DL & McCormick MK.  2008.  Internal transcribed spacer primers and sequences for improved characterization of basidiomycetous orchid mycorrhizas.  New Phytologist 177: 1020–1033.  Supplemental Material - Figures s1-s4.  Supplemental Material - Table s1.

Geml J, Laursen GA, Nusbaum HC, Taylor DL. 2007. Two new species of Agaricus from the Subantarctic. Mycotaxon 100: 193-208.

Shefferson RP, Taylor DL, Weiss M, Garnica S, McCormick MK, Adams S, Gray HM, McFarland JW, Kull T, Tali K, Yukawa T, Kawahara T, Miyoshi K, Lee Y-I. 2007. The evolutionary history of mycorrhizal specificity among Lady's Slipper orchids. Evolution 61: 1380-1390.

Taylor DL, Herriott IC, Long J, O'Neill K. 2007. TOPO-TA is A-OK: A test of phylogenetic bias in fungal environmental clone library construction. Environmental Microbiology 9: 1329-1334. Supplemental Material.

Simms EL, Taylor DL, Povich J, Shefferson RP, Sachs JL, Urbina M, Tausczik Y. 2006. An empirical test of partner choice mechanisms in a wild legume-rhizobium interaction. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London 273:77-81.

Geml J, Laursen GA, O’Neill K, Nusbaum HC, Taylor DL. 2006. Beringian origins and cryptic speciation events in the Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria). Molecular Ecology 15:225-239.

Shefferson RP, Weiss M, Kull T, Taylor DL. 2005. High specificity generally characterizes mycorrhizal association in rare lady's slipper orchids, genus Cypripedium. Molecular Ecology 14:613-626.

Lilleskov EA, Bruns TD, Horton TR, Taylor DL, Grogan P 2004. Detection of forest stand-level spatial structure in ectomychorrhizal fungal communties. FEMS Microbiology Ecology 49:319-332.

Taylor DL 2004. Myco-heterotroph-fungus marriages - is fidelity over-rated? New Phytologist: 163:217-221.

Taylor DL, Bruns TD, & Hodges, SA 2004. Evidence for mycorrhizal races in a cheating orchid. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London 271:35-43.

Taylor DL, Bruns TD, Szaro TM, & Hodges SA. 2003. Divergence in mycorrhizal specialization within Hexalectris spicata, a nonphotosynthetic desert orchid. American Journal of Botany 90:1168-1179.

Taylor DL, Bruns TD, Leake JR & Read DJ. 2002. Mycorrhizal specificity and function in myco-heterotrophic plants. In: The Ecology of Mycorrhizas. Ecological Studies vol. 157. Ian R. Sanders and Marcel van der Heijden, eds. pp 375-414. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. (NOTE: this pdf is from the page proofs, and is not identical to the published version)

Simms EL & Taylor DL. 2002. Partner choice in nitrogen fixation mutualisms of legumes and rhizobia. Integrative and Comparative Biology 42:369-380.

McKendrick SL, Leake JR, Taylor DL & Read DJ.2002 Symbiotic germination and development of the myco-heterotrophic orchid Neottia nidus-avis in nature and its requirement for locally distributed Sebacina spp. New Phytologist 154:233-247.

Bruns TD, Bidartondo MI, & Taylor DL. 2002. Host specificity in ectomycorrhizal communities: What do the exceptions tell us? Integrative and Comparative Biology 42:352-359.

Kristiansen KA, Taylor DL, Kjøller R, Rasmussen & Rosendahl S. 2001. Identification of mycorrhizal fungi from single pelotons of Dactylorhiza majalis (Orchidaceae) using single-strand conformation polymorphism and mitochondrial ribosomal large subunit DNA sequences. Molecular Ecology 10:2089-2093.

Taylor DL. 2000 A new dawn – the ecological genetics of mycorrhizal fungi. New Phytologist 147:236-239.

McKendrick SL, Leake JR, Taylor DL & Read DJ. 2000. Symbiotic germination and development of myco-heterotrophic plants in nature: ontogeny of Corallorhiza trifida and characterization of its mycorrhizal fungi. New Phytologist 145:523-537.

Taylor DL & TD Bruns. 1999 Population, habitat and genetic correlates of mycorrhizal specialization in the 'cheating' orchids Corallorhiza maculata and C. mertensiana. Molecular Ecology 8:1719-1732.

Taylor DL & Bruns TD. 1999. Community structure of ectomycorrhizal fungi in a Pinus muricata forest: minimal overlap between the mature forest and resistant propagule communities. Molecular Ecology 8:1837-1850.

Bruns TD, Szaro TM, Gardes M, Cullings KW, Pan JJ, Taylor DL, Horton TR, Kretzer A, Garbelotto M & Li Y. 1998. A sequence database for the identification of ectomycorrhizal Basidiomycetes by phylogenetic analysis. Molecular Ecology 7:257-272.

Taylor DL & Bruns TD. 1997 Independent, specialized invasions of ectomycorrhizal mutualism by two nonphotosynthetic orchids. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 94:4510-4515