Ep. 93: Mycoviruses - Fungal Disease, Plant Resilience & Hypovirus Biocontrols (feat. Bryce Alex)

Today on the Mushroom Hour Podcast we are joined by Bryce Alex, Doctoral Student at the University of Wisconsin Madison. Bryce is originally from Utah and he spent time working as a graduate student and Masters Candidate in the legendary Dentinger Lab at the University of Utah. His mycological research work has involved important players when it comes to fungal ecology that are largely invisible and many of us may have never heard of. He has worked on projects involving metabarcoding fungal propagules carried on bird feathers and mining transcriptomic datasets for hidden mycoviruses. He began his PhD in Plant Pathology at University of Wisconsin Madison in Fall 2020. I am excited for him to share his expertise with the emerging field of mycoviruses and how they relate to fungal, plant and even animal populations.   

TOPICS COVERED:    

• Entering the World of Mycology by Chance  
• Research in Legendary Dentinger Lab  
• What is a Mycovirus?  
• How do Mycoviruses Effect Their Hosts?  
• Hypovirulence in Pathogenic Fungi  
• Cryphonectria parasitica  
• Mycovirus Transference to Plants & Animals?  
• Agaricus bisporous Dieback Disease   
• Theories on Origins and Evolution of Mycoviruses  
• Changing Paradigm of Virology  
• Bryce’s Current PhD Research  
• Advice for Pursuing Academic Mycology  
• Embracing the Mycology Community  
• Future of Bryce’s Work  

EPISODE RESOURCES:   

• Bryce Alex LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryce-alex-5799b8169   
• UW-Madison Rakotondrafara Lab: https://rakotondrafaralab.russell.wisc.edu/   
• Utah Dentinger Lab: https://www.biology.utah.edu/faculty/bryn-dentinger/   
• Cryphonectria parasitica: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chestnut_blight   
• "50-Plus Years of Fungal Viruses": https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25771805/   
• "Five Questions About Mycoviruses": https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1005172   
• "Mycoviruses of filamentous fungi and their relevance to plant pathology": https://bsppjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1364-3703.2008.00503.x