UPSC Seminar

Carlos Aguilar-Trigueros
Department of Biological and Environmental Science, University of Jyväskylä, Finland

Title:Finding the axes of fungal functional diversity

Host: Adam Frew

Abstract:
Fungi underpin ecosystem functioning, yet our understanding of their functional diversity remains limited. We know remarkably little about the major axes along which fungal form and function vary, how those differences evolved, and how they translate into ecological roles. My research addresses this gap by combining comparative trait datasets, experiments, and evolutionary approaches across multiple scales of fungal biology. By assembling and harmonizing these data, my group is challenging the view of fungal ecological roles as isolated categories, showing instead that they are embedded within a connected functional network. 
At the same time, by comparing mycelial network morphology within and across species, we are revealing a major axis of variation in how fungi explore and occupy space. Finally, we are reconstructing, for the first time, the evolutionary trajectories of spore form across arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Together, these projects seek to identify general dimensions of fungal functional diversity and understand how they connect fungal phenotype and evolutionary history to plant interactions and ecosystem functioning.