From: Treseder KK, Lennon JT. 2015. Fungal traits that drive ecosystem dynamics on land. Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews 79:243-262. Under cold conditions, RNAs can form stable tertiary structures that render them non-functional and prevent translation (Owttrim 2006). Certain cold-induced RNA helicases can unwind the RNAs or bind to them, which allows translation to proceed […]
Fungal trait: β1,3-glucan
From: Treseder KK, Lennon JT. 2015. Fungal traits that drive ecosystem dynamics on land. Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews 79:243-262. Fungal cell walls provide protection from desiccation, freeze-thaw damage, and other environmental stresses (Bowman and Free 2006, Latgé 2007). Most fungal taxa construct cell walls with chitin (James et al. 2013); some can incorporate β1,3-glucan as […]
Fungal trait: trehalose
From: Treseder KK, Lennon JT. 2015. Fungal traits that drive ecosystem dynamics on land. Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews 79:243-262. Trehalose is a compatible solute that improves stress tolerance in fungi via several potential mechanisms (Estruch 2000, Francois and Parrou 2001). First, it is thought to substitute for water molecules in cell membranes, protecting them from […]
Fungal trait: Budding growth
From: Treseder KK, Lennon JT. 2015. Fungal traits that drive ecosystem dynamics on land. Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews 79:243-262. Budding growth forms—typical of yeasts—tend to allow better stress tolerance (Whiteway and Bachewich 2007), perhaps because each cell is encased in a protective cell wall. In contrast, in many filamentous fungi, cells can be connected, allowing […]
Fungal genes for ecosystem-related traits
From: Treseder KK, Lennon JT. 2015. Fungal traits that drive ecosystem dynamics on land. Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews 79:243-262. Functional genes can indicate the genetic potential of fungal taxa to carry particular traits, and they are especially informative if their function has been empirically verified in mutant or transcription assays in at least one fungus […]
Lab policy: Pre-reviews of proposals, manuscripts, and conference abstracts
Any research proposal I need to review and approve submission of any proposal that involves research, regardless of the funding agency or proposal length. Here are the reasons: 1. It will help you improve the proposal. In general, proposals that undergo a friendly review before submission to the granting agency have a better chance of […]
Lab policy: Two week turnaround time
Please allow me two weeks (i.e., 10 business days) to provide feedback on any writing, posters, or other material that you send to me. Letters of recommendation also require two weeks’ notice. You’ll need to plan in advance, because it essentially means that the hard deadline for any proposals, abstracts, etc is actually two weeks prior […]
Writing a review paper
These are notes from a lecture I gave to a grad writing class in EcoEvo at UCI. What is a review paper? Critical evaluation of published literature to develop new conclusions or insights Covers a general topic (> 100 papers) Targeted toward broad audience, especially students What is a great review paper? Evaluates the implicit […]
Materials for developing a microbial ecology course
Word documents for download Syllabus template for Microbial Ecology course Lecture outlines for Microbial Ecology course Description Do you need to develop a Microbial Ecology course? The Microbial Group at UCI has produced a syllabus template and lecture outlines to help you get started. You are welcome to use these documents as a starting point […]
How do you compare with other applicants to faculty searches?
Do you want to know how you compare to other job applicants in ecology? Here are the publication rates for all applicants to our 2013 tenure-track faculty position in ecology. These include only peer-reviewed publications. Publications on which the applicant was first- or senior-author are often given greater weight in job searches, so they are […]