Dear All,
With this email, we would like to invite you to attend June’s Wageningen Evolution & Ecology Seminar (WEES) and Workshop with Professor Anna Muszewska on "Ancient traits in genomes: why Saccharomyces cerevisiae is not telling us all about fungi"!
The seminar will take place on Tuesday, 9th of June 2026, 10:00–11:00 in Orion, B4015.
The associated workshop will be on Monday, 8th of June 2026, 16.00-17h in Orion, B4042.
The workshop gives attendees the opportunity to meet the seminar’s speaker and have a discussion about a hot topic in science. Prof Muszewska decided to talk about non-linear CVs in science, and how to overcome challenges as a scientist. She will then also talk about horizontal gene transfer via "starship" transposons in fungi. This will be followed by drinks at The Spot and an opportunity to meet and have dinner with the Speaker (dinner is at your own cost, but sign up with Ursula Oggenfuss - ursula.oggenfuss@wur.nl).
BSc and MSc students can get 1 ECTS for attending 2 workshops. Registration is required for this workshop and you can sign up by emailing Ursula Oggenfuss (ursula.oggenfuss@wurl.nl).
Seminar: Ancient traits in genomes: why Saccharomyces cerevisiae is not telling us all about fungi (9th of June 2026, 10:00–11:00, Orion B4015)
Prof. Anna Muszewska
Professor in Fungal Bioinformatics, Polish Academy of Sciences
Fungi match plants and animals in diversity, but remain in the shadows. Just as animals are divided into vertebrates and invertebrates, the fungal tree of life is separated into groups: Dikarya and non-Dikarya. The evolutionary split between Dikarya and non-Dikarya lineages is characterized by both the rapid origin of novel traits and the extensive loss of ancestral features. So far, most research has focused on the Dikarya novelties in the context of fruiting body formation and complex multicellularity. Structural complexity can be found beyond Dikarya and several examples of cellular components like flagellar machinery are present in non-Dikarya taxa. We characterized several genomic features of non-Dikarya, some of which I would like to comment on during the seminar. The differences we identify range from the profile of secondary metabolite clusters, genes related to cobalamin, a complex set of fucose metabolism genes, expression of genes involved in Fanconi Anaemia pathway, sphingolipid metabolism and lipid metabolism capabilities, xenologs, TORC1 inhibition, and even proteins involved in human infertility. Noteworthy, on the Barbara McClintock day, they also encode a different set of transposons including those found usually in animals such as Merlin or CryptonA. Taken together there is now sufficient information to clearly state that model Dikarya do not represent the fungal diversity and that we need to develop models out of Dikarya.
Workshop:
The complicated CVs of Scientists and Horizontal Gene transfer in fungi (8th of June 2026, 16:00, Orion B4042)
Anna Muszewska is dedicated to support young scientists on their way through academia. In this interactive workshop she will talk about her own experiences in becoming a professor, and will like to help attendees to see their own path clearer. There will also be a short discussion on starships, newly discovered transposable elements that facilitate to horizontal gene transfer in fungi.
Registration is required for the Masterclass as the SPOTS ARE LIMITED, and you can sign up by emailing Ursula Oggenfuss (ursula.oggenfuss@wur.nl).
About WEES
WEES is an initiative of PhD students and postdocs at Wageningen University to organize a continuing series of stimulating seminars on contemporary topics in evolution and ecology. For this series, we invite researchers from all over the world who have leading roles in their field. We aim to bring together different groups at Wageningen University using a variety of systems, but with a common interest in evolutionary and ecological questions. WEES is funded by graduate schools PE&RC, EPS, VLAG and WIAS.
Want to organise seminars yourself? Join WEES!
WEES is looking for new members! We aim for a broad and diverse range of topics and would like to welcome new members to help and include topics not represented yet. If you are curious, send an email to weeswageningen@gmail.com and join one of our meetings.
For more information, please visit www.tumblr.com/weeswageningen and follow us on X @weeswageningen linkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/wees-wageningen
Kind Regards,
Ursula Oggenfuss
On behalf of the WEES Committee
Website: weeswageningen.nl
X / BlueSky: @weeswageningen
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wees-wageningen/