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Mary Catherine Aime

Botany and Plant Pathology 

  • Associate Professor
765.496.7853
765.494.0363
Lilly Hall Room 1-335

Researchers in the Aime lab study all aspects of mycology, from genomics to pathology, although at its core the lab focuses on the earliest diverging lineages of Basidiomycota (Pucciniomycotina, Ustilaginomycotina, and Wallemiomycetes) and on basidiomycetes in tropical ecosystems. Our primary focus is on: (1) Systematics, biology, and evolution of rust fungi; the rust fungi represent the single largest group of plant pathogens with incredibly complex life cycles. Our work in this area uses phylogenetics and genomics to try and understand how these fungi became so successful and to provide tools for their identification. (2) Biodiversity of tropical fungi; it is conservatively estimated that more than 1 million fungal species have yet to be discovered and described by science and that many of these may reside in tropical world regions that have not yet been explored for fungi. Dr. Aime has spent 15 years documenting and describing new species and genera from a very remote region in Guyana and other tropical forests worldwide. (3) Systematics and biology of earliest diverging Basidiomycota, which includes the rust and smut fungal lineages and their non-pathogenic yeast and yeast-like relatives.

Awards & Honors

(2012) Fellow. Mycological Society of America.

Selected Publications

Aime, M. C., Toome, M., & McLaughlin, D. (2014). The Pucciniomycotina. In The Mycota VII Part A. Systematics and Evolution. D.J. McLaughlin and J.W. Spatafora (Eds.) (Vol. 2nd Ed., pp. 271-294). Berlin Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.

Toome, M., Ohm, R. A., Riley, R. W., James, T. Y., Lazarus, K. L., Henrissant, B., . . . Aime, M. C. (2014). Genome sequencing provides insight into the reproductive biology, nutritional mode, and ploidy of the fern pathogen Mixia osmundae. New Phytologist, 202, 554-564. Retrieved from http://DOI: 10.1111/nph.12653

Lodge, D. J., Padamsee, M., Matheny, P. B., Aime, M. C., Cantrell, S., Boertmann, D., . . . Hattori, T. (2014). Molecular phylogeny, morphology, pigment chemistry and ecology in Hygrophoraceae (Agaricales). Fungal Diversity, 64, 1-99.

Henkel, T. W., Wilson, A. W., Aime, M. C., Dierks, J., Uehling, J. K., Roy, M., . . . Mueller, G. M. (2014). Cantharellaceae of Guyana II. New species of Craterellus, new South American records for Cantherellus guyanensis and Craterellus excelsus, and a key to the Neotropical taxa. Mycologia, 106, 307-322.

Schoch, C. L., Robbertse, B., Robert, V., Vu, D., Cardinali, G., Irinyi, L., . . . Federhen, S. (2014). Finding needles in haystacks: linking scientific names, reference specimens and molecular data for Fungi. Database, 2014, 1-21. Retrieved from http://doi: 10.1093/database/bau061

Olatinwo, R., Allison, J., Meeker, J., Johnson, W., Streett, D., Aime, M. C., & Carlton, C. (2013). Detection and identification of Amylostereum areolatum(Russulales: Amylostereaceae) in the mycangia of Sirex nigricornis (Hymenoptera: Siricidae) in central Louisiana. Environmental Entomology, 42(6), 1246-1256.

Toome, M., Kuo, A., Henrissant, B., Lipzen, A., Tritt, A., Yoshinaga, Y., . . . Aime, M. C. (2014). Draft genome sequence of a rare smut relative, Tilletiaria anomala UBC 951. Genome Announcements, 3, http://genomea.asm.org/content/2/3/e00539-14.long.

Toome, M., Roberson, R., & Aime, M. C. (2013). Meredithblackwellia eburnea gen. et sp. nov., Kriegeriaceae fam. nov. and Kriegeriales ord. nov – toward resolving higher-level classification in Microbotryomycetes. Mycologia, 105(2), 486-495.

Rush, T. A., & Aime, M. C. (2013). The genus Meira: phylogenetic placement and description of a new species. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, 103, 1097-1106.

Padamsee, M., Kumar, T. K. A., Riley, R., Binder, M., Boyd, A., Calvo, A. M., . . . Aime, M. C. (2012). The genome of the xerotolerant mold Wallemia sebi reveals adaptations to osmotic stress and suggests cryptic sexual reproduction. Fungal Genetics and Biology, 49, 217–226.