Twenty‐first century mycology: a diverse, collaborative, and highly relevant science

MSA 2014: Peter Kennedy & Jason Stajich Introduction In June 2014, over 250 researchers from a variety of national and international locations attended the annual meeting of the Mycological Society of America, which was held on the campus of Michigan State University in East Lansing, MI, USA. Talks, posters, and symposiums covered an impressive breadth of fungal biology organized around four main research themes: cell biology/physiology, ecology/pathology, genetics/molecular biology, and systematics. The taxonomic diversity of the fungal kingdom was highlighted throughout the meeting, with presentations covering all of the major fungal lineages. While the core of the talks was on the fungi themselves, many emphasized interactions with other species, including a wide range of plants, animals, and bacteria. It was also clear that mycologists have quickly adopted the latest “–omics” and next generation sequencing methodologies to ask cutting edge questions about topics such as infectious disease, climate change, and bioremediation. At the same time, in the era where almost anyone can generate a fungal sequence, strong organism-based knowledge has become even more important (Peay 2014). Fortunately, this was on consistent display throughout the meeting and the Mycological Society of America has long been a welcoming community to researchers from all disciplinary backgrounds. Below we summarize a handful of the many meeting highlights.