BS University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez Campus

MS University of Illinois at Chicago

Current Research:

Coprophilous fungi inhabit or are associated with the dung of animals, including soil contaminated with dung. Podospora is a species rich genus, found worldwide on different kind of herbivore dung. It resides in the Order Sordariales, one of the most taxonomically diverse groups of fungi which contains lignicolous, herbicolous, terricolous, coprophilous and many cellulolytic taxa. Despite having had a great deal of attention from a morphological standpoint from some geographical areas, Podospora species have not previously been included in an extensive molecular revisionary work. The study will focus on: 1) investigating the diversity of Sordariales in bison dung within the study sites; 2) comparing Sordariales species occurrence in bison dung among different habitats and diet types, latitudes and seasons; 3) using morphological and DNA molecular data to investigate the phylogenetic relationships of species of Podospora sensu lato.