Tami McDonald

In the spring of 2005, I joined the Lutzoni lab in the department of Biology. I am interested in lichens, which are fungi that live symbiotically with algae. I study the role of epigenetics in the maintenance of this partnership of unlike organisms. My work focuses on histone methylation, DNA methylation and related epigenetic marks in the model lichen Cladonia grayi. Because I am also interested it the evolution of this symbiosis, I work with some two dozen additional lichen fungi to assess the conservation of the epigentic mechanisms governing lichenization.

I am originally from St. Paul, Minnesota. I received my B.A in English and Biology from Grinnell College, located in a small Iowa town surrounded by cornfields for 60 miles in every direction. I received my M.S. from the department of Plant Biology at the University of Minnesota, where I worked on the taxonomy of a beautiful lichen genus called Sticta. Most recently I worked in the Plant Pathology department at the University of Wisconsin on Aspergillus, the fungus that has given us soy sauce as well the toxic compound aflatoxin.

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