Very entertaining presenter, glad I watched! Sorry I can’t make the group!
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First Meeting Notes 
Four of us met to discuss the paper (Fungus wars: basidiomycete battles in wood decay), including @notplants, @Lando and Anne. It was a delightful gathering.
Here’s my best attempt at summarising the paper:
Species of wood decay basidiomycetes compete with one another for territory and nutrition. The offensive and defensive capabilities of these fungi - which include the release of anti-fungal compounds and detoxifying compounds, growth of hyphal barriers and modulation of pH - vary according to the niche occupied by each species. Some specialise in being among the first species to colonise a resource (R-selected) and are typified by their rapid spore germination, growth and mushroom production, while others specialise in secondary colonisation (C-selected) and employ combative techniques to displace existing species. These community assemblages of species move through wood in successional waves over spacetime.
In some cases, these competitive interactions among species enhance the rate of degradation of the wood substrate - either due to niche partitioning (degrading different molecules compared with the competitor) or due to accelerated metabolic activity to meet the energetic demands of combat (production of secondary metabolites etc.). These insights may have applications in mycoremediation, with species complexes potentially resulting in more rapid and complete degradation of toxins.
Some questions that came from the discussion:
- What’s the difference between homokaryotic and heterokaryotic mycelia? What impact does this have on degradation and combat abilities?
- What other factors influence the decomposition outcomes? How might we optimise for heightened downstream biodiversity or nutrient availability by shaping the degradation processes?
And then some meta-discussion about paper selection, group activities, meeting logistics:
Anne shared that IASS (Potsdam) gives out fellowships each year. If we had a great idea of what we could contribute to science, we could apply.
@notplants shared their appreciation for the high-level nature of the chosen paper and requested similar papers on the topics of decomposition outcomes and mycoremediation.
I shared my intention to create a resource / how-to guide for navigating the academic literature (how to search, how to evaluate the quality of search results, how to branch-out and find more papers etc.)
Anne mentioned the Web of Science tool (webofknowledge.com), saying that it’s really useful for generating maps of related papers (both before and after publication). She also raised the idea of creating a podcast from the reading group, perhaps simply recording the meeting to start with (I’m super keen on this idea).
@notplants requested that we try to keep meetings to 1 hour. I agreed and suggested we might aim to spend 5 minutes on check-ins, 45 minutes on discussion and 5 minutes on check-out.
I volunteered to continue finding potential articles for us to read and presenting them here for collective selection.
I definitely missed out a few things but that’s a broad overview of the proceedings 
I’m already looking forward to the next one and will soon post candidate papers for the next gathering.
Great thanks for the feedback! Podcast sounds great!
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based on a conversation I just had with @glyph here sharing some more topics that would be interesting to me to read more about
Senescence
- ways of thinking about it
- studies of observing and measuring it
- studies of ways of reversing it
Culture Libraries (for preservation, and frameworks for measuring and developing strains)
Leaf Cutter Ants, and their strategies for cultivation
Both theoretically and concretely. On the concrete side, I would be curious to look for a study of Senescence in Pleurotus Ostreatus, and how many generations of grain spawn it takes to see the effects.
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and if the main aspect of Senescence is number of cell replications since sexual reproduction,
what is it about sexual reproduction that gives this initial “Life Energy”
Second Meeting 
Date: Thursday, 28 January 02021
Time: 19:00 (UTC+1)
Place: Jitsi Meeting Room (video call)
Duration: 45 - 60 minutes
Language: English
I’d like to stick with a twice-per-month schedule but we can shift the date if it doesn’t work for a lot of folx.
I’m proposing three paper options for this session (trying to offer a variety of topics while also keeping a of thread of continuity so we don’t jump around too much).
-
Phylogenetic patterns of ant–fungus associations indicate that farming strategies, not only a superior fungal cultivar, explain the ecological success of leafcutter ants (link).
-
Potential impacts of climate change on interactions among saprotrophic cord-forming fungal mycelia and grazing soil invertebrates (link).
-
Analysis of fungal networks (link).
Not all of these papers are open-access. Please send me a private message if you need help accessing them.
Let’s try a poll for voting
Paper for 2nd meeting
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- 2
- 3
0 voters
Hi all, kieran a.k.a. kyphae (on scuttlebutt) a.k.a. magpie, very interested in joining this reading group though may not be able to make every session as I’m studying a MSc in Dynamical Systems at the moment which consumes a lot of my time. I have the long-term intention of leaning more into computational analysis of fungal ecologies, so this is a perfect opportunity to integrate! Unfortunately I won’t be able to make the next meet but will participate asynchronously.
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Hi there everyone!
I just happened upon this amazing idea. I’m fire for the paper on networks!
I’m very keen on doing this regularly and do have a quite a few sources that I’d like to share with you as well - here is the book series “The Mycota” on my google drive: The Mycota
Looking forward to meeting you!
@glyph do you know an Alana? She’s sitting in my kitchen right now 
Cheers!
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I’ve closed the voting poll for the next session (Thursday, 28 January 02021). We’ll be discussing paper (3):
Heaton L, Obara B, Grau V, et al. (2012). Analysis of fungal networks. Fungal Biology Reviews, 26(1): 12-29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fbr.2012.02.001
Please message me if you need access to the paper. Looking forward to seeing and hearing some of you! We will post notes here for those who are unable to attend.
Hey kieran! It’s terrific to see you here; been a long time since we spoke. The MSc sounds very interesting. I’d love to hear more about that at some point. Looking forward to having you on a future call
Hi @phylanx, I’ve very happy to hear you like the reading group idea! Thanks for sharing The Mycota series and for voting on the poll. I’m really looking forward to taking my mycological understanding to the next level in this collaborative learning exercise.
I don’t think Alana and I have ever met before. Maybe that will happen on one of these gatherings 
Take care, hope to see you soon.
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@glyph: I found out that it is @notplants who knows her
I’m reading the paper but I fear I will not be able to finish it until tomorrow since I’m super busy these days. It’s highly interesting to me though and I’m looking forward to our meeting!
hi all, @glyph is not feeling well today so won’t be able to make it,
but I’ll still be there at 19:00 UTC+1 for anyone keen to join
here is the jitsi link again: jisti
happy full moon
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I received a spam email from a website that I tried to read the previous paper through (academia.edu), before realizing you need to pay,
and the spam email said “you read Fungal Analysis, you might also like this paper”
, and it suggested this paper (PDF) Growth-induced mass flows in fungal networks | Luke Heaton - Academia.edu
which looks interesting, probably one of the best spam mail I’ve received
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That is A-grade spam. I receive similar emails from Mendeley and they’ve already blessed me with some tasty treats.
Maybe we can add the mass flows paper to the two which were not chosen from the last session (ant-fungus associations and climate change impacts) and run another poll? Seems like a nice pattern to vote on three options each time and slowly work through all the suggestions.
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Third Meeting
Date: Thursday, 11 February 02021
Time: 19:00 (UTC+1)
Place: Jitsi Meeting Room (video call)
Duration: 60 minutes
Language: English
Time to pick a paper for our next meeting. I’m proposing three paper options again this time, two that were left-over from the last vote and one new paper suggested by @notplants .
- Phylogenetic patterns of ant–fungus associations indicate that farming strategies, not only a superior fungal cultivar, explain the ecological success of leafcutter ants (link ).
- Potential impacts of climate change on interactions among saprotrophic cord-forming fungal mycelia and grazing soil invertebrates (link).
- Growth-induced mass flows in fungal networks (link).
Not all of these papers are open-access. Please send me a private message if you need help accessing them.
Here’s a voting poll. I’m going to try and get these polls up earlier in the future so we have more time for reading the paper after a choice has been made.
Paper for 3rd meeting
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- 3
0 voters
Alrighty, I think it’s safe to say we have a clear front-runner for our third meeting. I’ve closed the voting. Coming up on Thursday we’ll be reading (3):
Mueller U, Kardish M, Ishak H, et al. (2018). Phylogenetic patterns of ant–fungus associations indicate that farming strategies, not only a superior fungal cultivar, explain the ecological success of leafcutter ants. Molecular Ecology, 27(10): 2414-2434. https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.14588
Abstract
To elucidate fungicultural specializations contributing to ecological dominance of leafcutter ants, we estimate the phylogeny of fungi cultivated by fungus-growing (attine) ants, including fungal cultivars from (i) the entire leafcutter range from southern South America to southern North America, (ii) all higher-attine ant lineages (leafcutting genera Atta, Acromyrmex; nonleafcutting genera Trachymyrmex, Sericomyrmex) and (iii) all lower-attine lineages. Higher-attine fungi form two clades, Clade-A fungi (Leucocoprinus gongylophorus, formerly Attamyces) previously thought to be cultivated only by leafcutter ants, and a sister clade, Clade-B fungi, previously thought to be cultivated only by Trachymyrmex and Sericomyrmex ants. Contradicting this traditional view, we find that (i) leafcutter ants are not specialized to cultivate only Clade-A fungi because some leafcutter species ranging across South America cultivate Clade-B fungi; (ii) Trachymyrmex ants are not specialized to cultivate only Clade-B fungi because some Trachymyrmex species cultivate Clade-A fungi and other Trachymyrmex species cultivate fungi known so far only from lower-attine ants; (iii) in some locations, single higher-attine ant species or closely related cryptic species cultivate both Clade-A and Clade-B fungi; and (iv) ant–fungus co-evolution among higher-attine mutualisms is therefore less specialized than previously thought. Sympatric leafcutter ants can be ecologically dominant when cultivating either Clade-A or Clade-B fungi, sustaining with either cultivar-type huge nests that command large foraging territories; conversely, sympatric Trachymyrmex ants cultivating either Clade-A or Clade-B fungi can be locally abundant without achieving the ecological dominance of leafcutter ants. Ecological dominance of leafcutter ants therefore does not depend primarily on specialized fungiculture of L. gongylophorus (Clade-A), but must derive from ant–fungus synergisms and unique ant adaptations.
Please message me if you need access to the paper. Looking forward to seeing and hearing some of you!
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Happy New Moon! 
Our third meeting is coming up in approximately 10 hours (see above for details). Looking forward to hanging out with some of you and getting geeky over ant-fungus farming.
Fourth Meeting 
Date: Saturday, 27 February 02021
Time: 19:00 (UTC+1)
Place: Jitsi Meeting Room (video call)
Duration: 60 minutes
Language: English
It feels like a good time to read a cultivation-related paper 
This should be a lot more accessible and directly-applicable than our previous readings.
We’ve all heard about growing mushrooms on used coffee grounds, how about tea waste?
Yang D, Liang J, Wang Y, et al (2016). Tea waste: an effective and economic substrate for oyster mushroom cultivation. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 96(2), 680-684.
Abstract:
BACKGROUND: Tea waste is the residue that remains after tea leaves have been extracted by hot water to obtain water-soluble components. The waste contains a re-usable energy substrate and nutrients which may pollute the environment if they are not dealt with appropriately. Other agricultural wastes have been widely studied as substrates for cultivating mushrooms. In the present study, we cultivated oyster mushroom using tea waste as substrate. To study the feasibility of re-using it, tea waste was added to the substrate at different ratios in different experimental groups. Three mushroom strains (39, 71 and YOU) were compared and evaluated. Mycelia growth rate, yield, biological efficiency and growth duration were measured.
RESULTS: Substrates with different tea waste ratios showed different growth and yield performance. The substrate containing 40–60% of tea waste resulted in the highest yield.
CONCLUSION: Tea waste could be used as an effective and economic substrate for oyster mushroom cultivation. This study also provided a useful way of dealing with massive amounts of tea waste.
I think this one will be a lot of fun! It’s short and to-the-point, and should inspire some great conversation about experimental design and how to apply these techniques to small-scale cultivation efforts.
I hope to see you there!
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I’ve been incredibly slow at announcing the next meeting 
@notplants, would you like to go ahead with a meeting tomorrow night (New Moon) or would you prefer to wait until Full Moon?
I was thinking we might read the paper on distilled water storage (which I mentioned in another thread):
Richter DL (2008). Revival of saprotrophic and mycorrhizal basidiomycete cultures after 20 years in cold storage in sterile water. Canadian journal of microbiology, 54(8), 595-599.
How does that soun?
that sounds great! and from my end I’d say lets wait until the full moon so we can give a bit more notice and see if anyone else is able to join
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Fifth Meeting
Date: Sunday, 28 March 02021
Time: 19:00 (UTC+1)
Place: Jitsi Meeting Room (video call)
Duration: 60 minutes
Language: English
Let’s learn more about culture preservation and revival!
Richter DL, Dixon TG, Smith JK (2016). Revival of saprotrophic and mycorrhizal basidiomycete cultures after 30 years in cold storage in sterile water. Canadian Journal of Microbiology, 62(11), 932-937.
Abstract:
Vegetatively-colonized agar cores of 54 basidiomycete fungal isolates were stored at 5°C in tubes of sterile distilled water without manipulation for 30 years. The cultures represented 28 isolates of saprotrophic fungi and 26 isolates of mycorrhizal fungi. These cultures came from a group of 135 fungal isolates that were determined to be viable after 20 years of cold water storage. Overall, 47 of the 54 isolates (87%) grew vigorously when revived after storage for 30 years - of the 28 saprotrophic fungal isolates, 26 revived (93%); of the 26 mycorrhizal fungal isolates, 21 revived (81%). Eight of 13 isolates (62%) of Laccaria were viable after 30 years, which was considerably less viability than was found after 20 years for this genus of mycorrhizal fungi. However, a greater percentage of isolates of L. bicolor (83%) were viable than of L. laccata (43%) suggesting 30 years to be approaching the maximum limit for storage in cold sterile water for certain species. Considering the original 135 fungal isolates that were stored in sterile cold water from which this set was derived, overall survival after 30 years storage was 42%; however, saprotrophic fungi demonstrated considerably greater viability (70%) than mycorrhizal fungi (21%).
Keywords:
culture maintenance, culture viability, fungal preservation, long-term storage, mycorrhizal fungi, saprotrophic fungi
This should be a great paper and discussion for anyone involved in cultivation of mycelia. I’m sure we’ll have some deep conversations about culture preservation in the context of communal labs, cooperatives and sharing.
Let’s develop the knowledge and skills to ensure our great-great-great grandchildren can continue the relationships we’re forming with the fungi; humyn-fungal knots through spacetime.
I hope to see you there!
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