An Introduction to DNA Sequencing

By Sigrid Jacob

Friday, May 13 at 7pm

Topic.  DNA sequencing has become an integral part of modern mycology.  It’s not only helping with the classification of fungi but has revolutionized our understanding of the fungal tree of life. Sigrid will take us through the many uses (and abuses) of DNA sequencing, explain how DNA sequencing works.  She also will describe what it takes to set up a lab for sequencing and how to integrate molecular methods with the documenting and collecting clubs are already doing. She’ll also showcase some of the more interesting discoveries from her and the club’s collecting that DNA sequencing has helped uncover.

Sigrid Jakob is a community scientist based in Brooklyn, New York.  She is currently the president of the New York Mycological Society and a board member of the Fungal Diversity Survey (FunDiS), where she’s also active as a sequence validator. She co-founded the FunDiS Rare 20 conservation challenge as well as a fungi-focused community program for Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery, a first for a public green space in the US.  Sigrid has been extracting fungal DNA in her home lab since 2019 and has led many workshops in DNA sequencing. Her favorite fungi are Inocybe and fungi growing on dung.  

Zoom link available to MAW members on the Consortium Presentations page.