Karen Hughes and Ron Petersen, professor and emeritus professor respectively in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, recently published a 625-page monograph of a complex of mushroom-forming fungi. In this monumental work, the husband-and-wife team recognizes and treats eight genera and 69 species, based on collections distributed worldwide. Nine taxa are described as new. The volume is particularly outstanding for the incredible quality of scientific illustrations and color reproduction of historical icons blended together with molecular phylogenetic analyses.
Hughes and Petersen have garnered numerous awards over their careers and have an extensive publication record, with 79 publications since 1993, including articles in Molecular Biology and Evolution, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, New Phytologist, and the Canadian Journal of Botany (now known as Botany). The couple’s recent research efforts have involved an All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI) of fungal diversity in the Great Smoky Mountains, modernization and improvements to the University of Tennessee Herbarium, exploration and evolution of fungal mating systems, and leading a NSF research coordination network for collaboration and student training in fungal environmental sampling and informatics, one of the important emerging fields in fungal science today.
Selected Publications
Petersen RH, Hughes KW (2010). The Xerula/Oudemansiella complex (Agaricales). Nova Hedwigia 137: 1-625.
Hughes KW, Petersen RW, Lickey EB (2009). Using heterozygosity to estimate a percent DNA sequence similarity for environmental species delimitation across basidiomycetes fungi. New Phytologist 182: 795-798.
Spatafora JW, Hughes KW, Blackwell MB (eds) (2006). A phylogeny of kingdom Fungi. Mycologia 98: 829-1104.
James TY, Kauff F, Schoch CL, Matheny PB, et al. including Hughes KW (2006). Reconstructing the early evolution of Fungi using a six gene phylogeny. Nature 443: 818-822.
Petersen RH, Hughes KW (2004). A contribution to a monograph of the genus Lentinellus. Bibliotheca Mycologica 198: 1-180.
Lickey EB, Hughes KW, Petersen RH (2003). Variability and phylogenetic incongruence of an SSU nrDNA group I intron in Artomyces, Auriscalpium and Lentinellus (Auriscalpiaceae: Homobasidiomycetes). Molecular Biology and Evolution 20: 1909-1916.
Visit the Quest Gallery at Trace, UT’s digital archive, to access publications of other Quest Scholars of the Week.