Lab updates March 2026

Mid-February, I participated in a “taxathon” in Leiden, The Netherlands, during which volunteers screened dried, pinned insects for the presence of Laboulbeniales microfungi. We spent three days screening 414 insect specimens and found 17 infected ones (prevalence 4.1%). The taxathon was hosted by the Taxon Expeditions collection and Dr. Menno Schilthuizen, and was funded through a 2025 Mycological Society of America Martin-Baker Research Award.

Also in February, the third and last “C4inV4” workshop took place in Szeged, Hungary, hosted by the HUN‑REN Biological Research Centre. This workshop was dedicated to comparative genomics, combining lectures with hands‑on bioinformatics training to detect gene duplications and losses in Laboulbeniomycetes genomes. I gave the opening lecture about the placement of Laboulbeniomycetes in Ascomycota. This project was financially supported by the Visegrad Fund (grant no. 22420237).

I helped my new PhD student Brianna Santamaria move from Belgium to Czechia. Some 20 hours in the moving truck (roundtrip), lots of soda, snacks, traffic jams, but we made it in one piece. Brianna started in March, she will work on entomopathogenic fungi, continuing to build the EntomoFun database and running behavioral experiments.

Also in February, Frederik De Wint transitioned into his new role of postdoctoral researcher in my lab, funded by my Junior Star grant (26-23464M). Frederik will co-supervise PhD students, study the influence of abiotic factors on parasitism across multiple trophic levels, and lead a lab-wide project dealing with extinction cascades.

Warre’s Stigmatomyces paper is accepted for publication in Mycologia. A major achievement! We show that Stigmatomyces sensu lato consists of six well-defined clades based on multi-locus phylogenetic analyses, with support from morphology (morphometrics) and ecology. Despite pushback from other researchers, our hypothesis that Stigmatomyces in the current sense is paraphyletic and should be split into multiple genera receives support. We haven’t formally done this yet because we need sequences from the type species to know for certain which clade represents Stigmatomyces sensu stricto. To be continued… but congratulations with this one, Warre!

In March, the lab was very busy with visitors Aimée Blondelle, my FWO-funded PhD student at Ghent University, and Thomas E. Martin, Head of Research at Operation Wallacea and close collaborator of the lab. It was a very productive week, with many meetings and discussions. We took this time to initiate two exciting lab projects.

Kira Tolstych, Master student at Ghent University, started an internship in our Laboratory of Fungal Ecology and Evolution in České Budějovice, supported by Erasmus+ funds. She will work closely with my PhD student Libelje Mortier, focusing on Xylariales collected in Cusuco National Park. In addition, she is also helping with some other projects. Welcome to the lab, Kira!