Mycorrhizal Symbioses, October 3 @ 7:30 pm

Illinois Mycological Society

Mycorrhizal Symbioses, Slippery Jacks, &
A Ghost of Mycorrhizal Past?
with Peter Kennedy

October 3, 2016 at 7:30 pm

Niles Historical Society
8970 Milwaukee Avenue
Niles, IL 60714


Peter Kennedy and colleagues are exploring how symbiotic mushrooms set up partnerships with tree roots. Most Suillus, the slippery jacks and related boletes, are symbionts with pine and other conifers. But Suillus subaureus is an outlaw that partners with oak and aspen instead. How does this tree host specificity work and what are the genetic and molecular processes behind the communications for root tip colonization?

Peter Kennedy is a fungal ecologist broadly interested in plant-microbe interactions. He has worked extensively on ectomycorrhizal fungal symbioses, focusing on how the structure of ectomycorrhizal fungal communities is influenced by factors such as interspecific competition, host specificity, and biogeography. Peter received his bachelor’s degree from The Evergreen State College and his doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley. He was a post-doctoral research fellow at UC Berkeley and assistant professor of biology at Lewis & Clark College before joining the departments of Plant Biology and Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior at the University of Minnesota in 2013. In the summer of 2000, Peter was an intern at the Field Museum studying mushrooms in the woods and in the lab with Drs. Mueller and Leacock.

A note on our location:
Niles Historical Center is about a tenth of a mile Southeast from the Golf-Mill Shopping center. The former sheriff’s office has parking adjacent to the building. The meeting room is on the third floor and is accessible by elevator as well as a large staircase. Restrooms are available on first and third floors. A museum volunteer will open the building for us Monday evening. For public transport from the city, take the Blue Line to the Jefferson Park CTA Station, from there it is 20 minutes on the PACE #270 bus to Milwaukee and Elizabeth. The museum is open to the public Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 10:30 AM to 3:00 PM.
http://www.illinoismyco.org/home