Blog
2023
Herptile Microbiomes at MSA2023
The Mycological Society of America (MSA) is a group of mycologists interested in all aspects of research focused on fungi. Every year, MSA’s elected officers organize a meeting that bring together mycologists from different backgrounds interested in sharing their research. This year, the team attended and the main focus of the project, research about the herptile microbiome and Basidiobolus genomics was presented through talks and posters. Specifically, in a session on animal-fungal interac...
The team members attended a workshop at Oregon State University to learn about Metabolomics as lead by Kerrie McPhail and George Neuhaus. We learned how to prepare samples for metabolite extraction, some theory and practical instruction on the LC-MS works, and analysis of some prepared samples of Basidiobolus grown on different media and under aerobic or anaerobic conditions.
Our 2023 research collecting animals for fecal samples and isolation of Basidiobolus cultures was a fun and successful campagain. The team started collection in Western Tennessee at Park 1 followed by … The last week of the trip was spent in the North Carolina side of Great Smoky Mountain National Park to collect salamanders. Photos Statistics of collected samples
Hellbender Research at Zoo Nashville
New research and conservation efforts to protect Hellbender salamanders is going on at the Nashville Zoo. The Walker team at MTSU is engaging in this work as well as making efforts to profile microbiomes of these important amphibians to southeastern US ecosystems. See the Mental Floss article on the Hellbender Salamander Conservation Project
2022
Wildlife, herptile, and microbiome diversity continue to captivate me
This summer I was fortunate enough to be asked to spend two weeks in Tennessee collecting samples to understand bacterial-fungal interactions in the gut of reptiles and amphibians. This was the most fun that I’ve ever had on a field trip! I learned how to successfully collect and sample a variety of reptiles and amphibians. The senior team members also explained how to identify snakes, salamanders and frogs in the Eastern TN region. I learned how to identify good amphibian habitat and properl...
2021
Come join our team working on Herptile microbiomes. You can find links to apply for positions at MTSU, OSU and UCR. Join the Team
Herptile Microbiomes Project Announcement
We are happy to announce the Herptile Microbiomes Project is getting ready to initiate. We are now advertising for PhD and postdoctoral reseacher positions. The project was notified of successful funding application at the NSF as part of the Rules Of Life Microbiome Interactions and Mechanisms. Our project consists of a team of four researchers from three universities. We are excited to recruit students and postdoctoral researchers into a diverse project that includes field work, live animal...