Biodiversity and Evolution of Fungal Parasites and Pathogens

Dr. Danny Haelewaters holds a B Veterinary Sciences, a Master of Science in biology, and a PhD in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology. During his Master program he developed a new technology to analyze forensic relevant fungi in casework at the Netherlands Forensic Institute. Between 2012 and 2018, he worked at the Farlow Herbarium of the Harvard University Herbaria (Cambridge, MA) as a PhD student. In 2018, he fulfilled a short postdoc at the University of South Bohemia in the Czech Republic, and since November 2018 he is a USDA-funded postdoctoral research assistant at Purdue University, where he characterizes the fungal microbiota of Romaine lettuce. Dr. Haelewaters has published numerous journal articles and also writes popular science articles for different sources, including Scientias.nl, Eos-magazine, and FUNGI Magazine.

PART 1 Theoretical contributions 1. Definitions of fungal parasites and pathogens through time 2. Parasites and pathogens in the fungal tree of life 3. Evolutionary and ecological models in fungal parasitism shifting to mutualism 4. Mechanisms of fungal parasitism and pathogenicity 5. Fungal hyperparasites 6. Co-speciation studies: Is there a common trend? 7. The use of phylogenetics and phylogenomics in understanding fungal diversity - problems, state of the field, future perspectives 8. Fungal disease dynamics in ecosystems PART 2 Biodiversity 9. Chytrid fungi 10. Understanding obligate biotrophy in Laboulbeniomycetes 11. Entomophthora muscae and Musca domestica: A candidate model system to study host immune responses against fungal pathogens 12. Entomopathogenic fungi and their use in biological control 13. Massospora, obligate pathogens of cicadas 14. Phytopathogenic fungi 15. Ophiocordyceps zombie ant fungi 16. Economically important plant parasites: Rusts and smuts 17. Mycoparasitism in Basidiomycota 18. Medical fungi and human diseases 19. Pneumocystis mammal pathogens