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Chemistry In Pictures

Chemistry in Pictures: The fungus among us

by Brianna Barbu
September 10, 2024

Fuzzy white mold in a dish.
Credit: Josh McGinnis

This is an as-yet-unnamed strain of fungus isolated from Hollins Mill Tunnel, a historic railroad tunnel in Lynchburg, Virginia by Josh McGinnis, a software engineer and self-taught biologist with a passion for collecting fungi. He has built his own lab and sequencing tools for studying mushrooms and molds that he encounters on his travels. He’s especially interested in fungi as a way of discovering new molecules and biosynthetic pathways that can be engineered for useful applications.

The train-tunnel fungus doesn’t yet have a name, but it’s most likely in the genus Kockovaella, McGinnis says on social media. It’s a 99.6% genetic match for yeast found by researchers in Santiago de Compostela, Spain (Biofouling 2016, DOI: 10.1080/08927014.2016.1183121)—apparently, it likes to make its home on granite.

Hollins Mill Tunnel, a historic railroad tunnel in Lynchburg, Virginia.
Credit: Josh McGinnis

Credit: Josh McGinnis. Follow him on Instagram at @everymanbio.

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