microbe talk: july 2014

posted on july 23, 2014   by benjamin thompson

dr bryn dentinger, a researcher at the royal botanic gardens, kew, bought a packet of dried porcini mushrooms in a local shop. being an expert in fungi, bryn wanted to know what species of porcini he had purchased, so he sequenced the dried mushrooms’ dna (obviously) and was rather surprised at the result. ben went to kew to talk to bryn about fungi and about his discovery…

 

also on the podcast this month, we interviewed artemis louyakis, who studies thrombolites: tough, rock-like structures, which are actually macrocolonies of bacteria. artemis tells us about her research and the practical uses that these structures might have in space travel.

show notes:

• bryn’s paper ‘what’s for dinner?: undescribed species of porcini in a commercial packet’ via peerj.
• bryn’s homepage.
• information on thrombolites in australia.

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