Symposium Description
Microbes exist in and on every part of the Earth, interacting not only with themselves, but with other microbes as well as diverse hosts, including humans, animals and plants. This symposium focuses on cross-kingdom interactions involving fungi, both with other microbes and their impact on eukaryotic hosts. These interactions are increasingly recognized to play critical roles in regulating population dynamics, biodiversity patterns, ecosystem processes, and host health. In addition to presenting examples from a wide variety of study systems, the symposium will also highlight how fungal-mediated cross-kingdom interactions can be studied using omics approaches, hyperspectral imaging, microbial, biochemical, and molecular biology techniques. Collectively, this symposium provides the opportunity to bring together scientists from different disciplines and career stages around a shared interest in harnessing knowledge about cross-kingdom interactions to better manage both natural and agricultural ecosystems as well as benefit host health.
Schedule
8:30 - 9:00 Continental breakfast in Cargill atrium
9:00-9:10 Welcome by organizers
9:10-9:40 Dr. Christine Salomon
Fighting fungi with fungi: Harnessing fungal natural products to treat infectious disease
9:40-10:10 Dr. Linda Kinkel
What are the roles of cross-kingdom species interactions in plant mycobiome assembly?
10:10-10:30 Coffee break
10:30-11:00 Dr. Devanshi Khokhani
Mycorrhizal fungi increase the uptake of fixed nitrogen from engineered strains of Azotobacter vinelandii
11:00-11:30 Dr. Dana Davis
Looking for yeast in all the wrong places
11:30 - 1:00 Lunch
1:00 - 2:00 Keynote lecture by Dr. Krishna Subbarao
Population genomics demystifies the defoliation phenotype in Verticillium dahliae
2:00-2:30 Dr. Rachel Hestrin
Resource Exchange and Resilience Supported by Mycorrhizal-Microbial 'Synergies'
2:30-3:00 Dr. Mathew Moscou
Gene expression drives copy number variation in plant-fungal interactions
3:00-3:30 Dr. Kaitlin Gold
Global surveillance of soilborne plant pathogens with remote sensing and aerosol transport monitoring
3:30-4:00 Reception starts
4:00 - 5:00 Posters and reception