INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Pfister is professor of systematic botany and curator emeritus of the Farlow Library and Herbarium at Harvard University
Speaking to Srijana Mitra Das at Times Evoke, he discusses the evolution and importance of the rich world of fungal flora:What is the core
of your research?I work on fungi and a particular group in the class called Ascomycota
Earlier, we had only morphology or the study of structures
With the advent of molecular phylogenetics, we could expand the field
Our lab also studies fungi that trap nematodes or worms, powdery mildew or widespread plant parasites which are not particularly
well-studied, insects, etc.';
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-- randomNumber Congratulations!You have successfully cast your voteLogin to view resultWhy is it important to study fungi?Given their
relevance, fungi are actually very under-studied
animals and microbes actually place that number from between one and a half million to seven million species
This rich world is quite poorly understood
Yet, fungi interact with other organisms in important ways
Their relationships with roots are very beneficial as they pick up and move materials to plants which need these to grow
All forests depend on fungi in an underground mycorrhizal network that maintains healthy plants
A banana disease linked to fungi is extremely serious
Coffee can be infected by a fungus which limits its production and the areas it can be grown in
Chocolate, wheat and other crops are also vulnerable
So, in terms of diversity, we find both broad patterns and narrow niches in which some fungi exist.UNUSUAL BLOOMS: Mushrooms, some being
edible, hold the spores of fungi
With farming, forestry and introducing species for plantations, habitats have been tremendously altered here
These forests held fascinating fungi though
An example is cyttaria whose nearest relatives are in Australia and New Zealand
Interestingly, in 1906, Roland Thaxter, a Harvard mycologist, travelled to the temperate forests of Chile
When I read the diary later, I found the specimens unique
This stimulated our ark of going back to the same forests
In 2010, we found many of the same fungi
reforest were not the original ones
There were now pines brought in from North America, eucalyptus from Australia, etc
Such habitat change is crucial, particularly for the habitat niches within biomes
Also, partly because of climate change and the pressures on forests, Chile is seeing many more forest fires
seen so far?Each fungus carries its own story
Somebody had to first find and collect it, then study and name it and others also researched it later, gradually expanding our range of
I find that process of history and documentation fascinating
In my own work, there was a fungus described from Bermuda in the 1920s, associated with a Bermuda feeder, a unique local species
But through our molecular studies, we found that lineage was present in the eastern part of the United States
