Michigan Macrofunga Project's Journal

The 2022 mushroom season is here! Yet again, I ask for your assistance in collecting lorchels and related mushrooms (Discina, Gyromitra, and Hydnotrya) to help determine the distribution, genetics, and evolution of gyromitrin. ​Gyromitrin is a mycotoxin produced most infamously by Gyromitra esculenta, a deadly poisonous mushroom that is consumed as a delicacy in Finland (after being properly prepared to remove most of the gyromitrin). We actually have no idea which genes make gyromitrin, how gyromitrin biosynthesis evolved in lorchels, or for that matter which species produce gyromitrin. I’m attempting to answer these questions for my PhD research! If you'd like to read more about the project, you can find a longer description on my website.

If you were able and willing, I’d greatly appreciate donations of any and all fungal specimens in the family Discinaceae (Gyromitra, Discina, and Hydnotrya). If you would like to donate any that you find for this project, a few things need to happen for the specimen to be usable:

1. The specimen needs to be documented with photographs in the field. The most valuable specimens are accompanied by complete metadata such as collection date, location, GPS coordinates, habitat, substrate, and morphological description. Please read more about best practices for photographing and collecting mushrooms at Fungal Diveristy Survey.
2. While not required, a spore print is highly desirable as it helps in trying to culture a fungus. We can use the dried hymenium for culturing but contamination is a much greater issue. Spore deposits allow for cleaner culturing. However, lorchels are notoriously finicky with spore prints. You can try the normal method of acquiring a spore print by placing the hymenium face down on a piece of paper or alumin foil at home, but this seems to have a low success rate. A method that seems to work better for Gyromitra and other Pezizales is placing the fresh mushroom or a portion of the hymenium while in the field into a small, sterile, plastic petri dish or roll it up in aluminum foil. If placing the hymenium in a petri dish, you can position it and hold it steady close to the lid with a base of leaves or moss. The humidity of the container facilitates spore release. Over time you will see a spore deposit being formed on the lid. You can aid in the process by opening the lid slightly and closing the lid abruptly to create some pressure that discharges the asci, or by blowing on the tissue and closing the lid quickly. Back at home, remove everything from the petri dish. You can vew the lid under a microscope to confirm the presence of a spore deposit. Circle the deposit with a Sharpie on the outside of the petri dish, wipe the bottom portion with an ethanol wipe, and let the ethonol evaporate and the spores dry out (which you can see happen under the microscope). Close the petri dish, seal it up, and preserve with the specimen. The spore deposit can be used months to years in the future in serial dilutions to generate single spore isolates.
3. Your data need to be uploaded to either Mushroom Observer or iNaturalist. Instructions for doing so can be found here.
4. The specimens need to be completely dried, placed into a sealable bag, and labelled with the Mushroom Observer or iNaturalist number, along with whatever other information you’d like to physically include. More information on how to dry mushrooms for long term storage can be found here. A note on drying: this is a project focused on volatile mycotoxins, I highly recommend drying these mushrooms in a place with good ventilation!
5. Notify me that you are going to send me some specimens by filling out this form.
6. Pack your specimens in a box and send them to the following address: Alden Dirks, 4050 Biological Sciences Building, 1105 N. University Ave, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109. I have received specimens in flat mailers and envelopes that arrive completely fragemented, so please make sure to use a noncrushable container.

For each specimen I receive I will attempt to sequence the ITS and LSU rDNA barcodes. I will share these data with you as well as my sequence-based identification. Some specimens may be selected for gyromitirn analysis, culturing, or whole genome sequencing.

​Something important to note: your specimens are received as donations. Unfortunately I do not have access to fund to reimburse you for time or expenses related to your donation, including shipping costs, and the specimens cannot be returned to you. Rather, they will be accessioned at the University of Michigan fungarium for long-term safekeeping and storage. Make sure to make a “split” (keep a portion of the mushrooms for yourself) if you are interested in holding onto it for personal study. For this project I have been working with some fungarium specimens that are over 100 years old. Your donated specimens will live on as research subjects long in the future, perhaps for centuries to come.

Thank you for sharing your time, energy, and knowledge in the form of mushrooms donations. Your specimens have been invaluable so far and I am greatly appreciative of all your help!