News
MSc students of 2025-2026
Feb. 17, 2026
This academic year we can welcome six new MSc students who will do their research internship. Maja, Iga and Leonardo will work on the immune system of mushrooms, Aburrahman and Beste will work on microbial lipids, and Maya will work on genome analysis. Welcome and good luck!
MSc students of 2024-2025
Nov. 13, 2024
This academic year we can welcome two new students who will do their research internship. Sofia will work on the defense of mushroom-forming fungi and Vlad will work on microbially-produced lipids. Good luck!
Paper: regulation of the immune system of mushrooms
Nov. 1, 2024
Erik published his new paper on the regulation of the immune system of mushroom-forming fungi. The transcription factor Gat1 turns out to be an important regulator during interaction with competitors.
Paper: genome sequences of Schizophyllum commune
Aug. 1, 2024
Ioana has published a paper that describes comparative genomics of Schizophyllum commune. We show that there is a lot of variation in both genotype and phenotype in this mushroom-forming fungus.
Paper: regulatory network of light sensing
July 1, 2024
Peter Jan published an awesome paper about ChIP-Seq on the blue light sensor Wc-2 in the mushroom-forming fungus Schizophyllum commune. It shows us which genes are directly regulated by this important transcription factor during early development.
MSc students of 2023-2024
Nov. 22, 2023
This academic year we can welcome three new students who will do their research internship. Gaya and Laura will work on the defense of mushroom-forming fungi, and Elena will work on microbially-produced lipids. Good luck!
Three new publications
Nov. 15, 2023
In recent months, we have co-authored three new papers. Congrats to everyone involved!
Paper published: regulator of cellulases
June 2, 2022
Last week our new paper describing the transcription factor Roc1 was published in the journal mBio. Roc1 is a key regulator of cellulase gene expression in the mushroom-forming fungus Schizophyllum commune.
You can read it here: https://journals.asm.org/doi/full/10.1128/mbio.00628-22
New students 2021 - 2022
Jan. 1, 2022
This academic year we welcome 3 MSc students who will do their research internship in our group. Simona Cernat, Spyros Kanellopoulos, and Thomas de Vries. Moreover, Julie Gershenzon will do a BSc internship.
Paper: epigenetic landscape during mushroom development
April 16, 2021
Peter Jan Vonk published a new paper about the epigenetic landscape during mushroom development. He performed ChIP-Seq on lysine 4 dimethylated histone H3, which is a marker for transcriptionally active DNA. Overall, the epigenetic landscape is similar between monokaryons (a lifestage that does not form mushrooms) and primordia (early mushroom development). However, clear differences were also seen. For example in the case of two transcription factors. Indeed, when these TFs were deleted, mushroom development was stalled.
New Master Students
Oct. 29, 2020
This month 4 new students have started their research internship for their Master program. Welcome Brandon, Janieke, Jelle and Tom. Furthermove, Ryan will start in November. Good luck!
New website live
July 25, 2020
This week we launched the new website for the Fungal Genomics group. The most important addition is the Genome Portals. These allow you to analyze the genomes that we have sequenced and annotated (or have collaborated on). The current set of tools include Blast, a genome browser, functional annotations, and an enrichment analysis tool. More tools will be added later!
Our research on the radio
June 14, 2020
This week our research was on the radio twice! Robin was interviewed about the recent publication on Ophiocordyceps and zombie ants on the Dutch radio:
New paper about Ophiocordyceps and Zombie Ants
June 5, 2020
A new paper from the collaboration with the lab of Charissa de Bekker about Ophiocordyceps and zombie ants. The genome of Ophiocordyceps camponoti-floridani was sequenced, annotated, and analyzed. Moreover, an expression analysis during behavior modification gave a lot of new insights into what is really going on during this fascinating process.
New lab member: Yuanyuan Wang
Jan. 5, 2020
We have a new lab member: Yuanyuan Wang. She is a visiting PhD student with a CSC grant from China, and will work on the regulation of mushroom development for 1 year.
New MSc students 2019-2020
Oct. 22, 2019
This Fall six new MSc students will start a research project (internship) in our group. Welcome everyone and good luck!
New research project: mushroom defense
Oct. 22, 2019
We started a new research line: the defense of mushroom-forming fungi against their fungal pathogens. It is funded by a VIDI grant by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). Erik Beijen is the first PhD student who will work on the project.
New paper: CRISPR/Cas9 in Schizophyllum commune
May 21, 2019
Peter Jan Vonk has published his method to dramatically increase the efficiency of gene deletion using pre-assembled ribonucleoproteins
New group member: Eva Almasi
Jan. 5, 2019
Eva Almasi has started as a research technician, working on the regulation of mushroom development. Welcome and good luck!
New MSc students 2018-2019
Nov. 11, 2018
This Fall three new MSc students will start their research internship projects. Welcome!
New paper: homeodomain TFs in the fungal kingdom
Oct. 11, 2018
Peter Jan Vonk published a paper about the evolution of homeodomain transcription factors. This class of TFs plays several important roles in (multicellular) development in many fungi across the fungal kingdom.
New paper: five Ophiocordyceps genomes
Oct. 2, 2017
Today our paper was published in Scientific Reports, which was the result of the ongoing collaboration with the group of Charissa de Bekker at the University of Florida.
We sequenced and annotated five genomes of Ophiocoryceps species that can infect ants and modify their behavior. Comparative genomics and transcriptomics revealed novel candidate genes that may be involved in this behavior modification.
The genomes can be browsed interactively by clicking on Genome Portals in the menu bar.
New MSc students 2017-2018
Sept. 29, 2017
Three new MSc students started their research project in the group. Good luck!
New research project: Mushroom Development. Funded by an ERC Starting Grant
Sept. 10, 2016
Robin Ohm has been awarded a Starting Grant by the European Research Council (ERC). The grant of 1.5 million euros allows the group to study the genetics of mushroom development using the model system Schizophyllum commune.