Ep. 128: NYC Mycology, Greenwood Cemetery & DIY DNA Sequencing (feat. Sigrid Jakub)

Today on Mushroom Hour we are humble hosts to the talented Sigrid Jakob, President of the New York Mycological Society. Sigrid only discovered fungi within the last several years, but her intense passion quickly catapulted her into the forefront of citizen mycology. She has played a leading role in rebooting the North American Mycoflora project and transforming the national organization into the Fungal Diversity Survey known as FunDiS. She is an accomplished citizen science facilitator, providing resources for at-home genetic sequencing to allow those with no background in biochemistry to successfully extract and amplify DNA. In her non-mushroom life, Sigrid is a 55 year old independent brand strategist who lives in Brooklyn, is mother to a 17 year old and holds degrees in philosophy, psychology and photography. A modern Renaissance woman who shares the tools with which to examine fungal diversity for the laymen, I am excited to learn about how we all can contribute to putting together the seemingly endless tree of fungal diversity.   TOPICS COVERED:   Growing up with Hunters, Gardeners and Woodsy Folk   Fungal Diversity in NYC   Role of Community Mycology in Mapping Biodiversity   Fungal Diversity Survey   Observational Data Fueling Conservation   Conservation Framework Around Fungi in the US vs Europe   Getting Deeper into Fungal DNA   Developing Fungal DNA Sequencing Protocols   Sourcing Tools and Reagants for At-Home Sequencing   Impact of Amateur Sequencing Data    Greenwood Cemetery Fungal Diversity Project   Findings and Future of the Greenwood Cemetery Project   Presiding over the New York Mycological Society   Future Plans for NY Mycological Society   EPISODE RESOURCES:   Sigrid Jakob IG: https://www.instagram.com/greenwoodzombie/   Sigrid's Dung Fungi IG: https://www.instagram.com/dung_fungi/   Fungal Diversity Survey: https://fundis.org/   New York Mycological Society: https://newyorkmyc.org/   Green-Wood Cemetery: https://www.green-wood.com/   Youtube Series "Fungal PCR at Home": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyaNM6lJmGo   NY Times Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/15/style/greenwood-cemetery-mushrooms.html   Sporormiella (Genus): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sporormiella