People
Bidartondo, Martin I.
| Job Title | Senior Lecturer (joint appointment with Imperial College, London) |
|---|---|
| Department | Jodrell |
| Section | |
| Science Teams |
Mycology United Kingdom Large-Scale Syntheses Monocots III: Orchids |
| Joined Kew | 2004 |
| Foreign Language(s) | Spanish |
Qualifications & Appointments
BS, Univ. Alaska (Fairbanks), 1996
PhD, Univ. California (Berkeley), 2001.
Role
Mycological investigations employing molecular techniques.
Current areas of research (75% of appointment) include ectomycorrhizal tree invasion of British lowland heathlands (supported by NERC), mycorrhizal germination of British woodland orchids (supported by NERC), linking tree health to ectomycorrhizal communities under changing environmental conditions (supported by NERC), and DNA barcoding of British macrofungi (supported by the Royal Society). Teaching (15%) includes lecturing for MRes courses in Biosystematics at the Natural History Museum, in Ecology, Evolution & Conservation at Silwood Park, and undergraduate Ecology and Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions. Currently supervising two PhD students and co-supervising one PhD student. Administrative duties (10%) include every aspect of the day-to-day running of a fungal molecular laboratory.
Projects
Are Helleborine Orchids Epiparasitic Upon Ectomycorrhizal Associations?
Are there Keystone Ectomycorrhizal Fungi that Mediate Tree Invasion of Lowland Heathlands?
Fungal DNA Barcoding at Kew: Closing the Sequence Gap
Selected Publications 2001-2005
Bidartondo, M.I., Redecker, D., Hijri, I., Wiemken, A., Bruns, T.D., Domínguez, L., Sérsic, A., Leake, J.R. & Read, D.J. (2002). Epiparasitic plants specialized on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Nature 419: 389-392. (News & Views commentary: Hibbett, D.S., Nature 419: 345-346.)
Bidartondo, M.I., Bruns, T.D., Weiß, M., Sérgio, S. & Read, D.J. (2003). Specialized cheating of the ectomycorrhizal symbiosis by an epiparasitic liverwort. Proc. Royal Soc. London, B, Biological Sciences 270: 835-842. (News & Views feature: Lincoln, T., Nature 422: 826.)
Bidartondo, M.I., Burghardt, B., Gebauer, G., Bruns, T.D. & Read, D.J. (2004). Changing partners in the dark: Isotopic and molecular evidence of ectomycorrhizal liaisons between forest orchids and trees. Proc. Royal Soc. London, B, Biological Sciences 271: 1799-1806.
Bidartondo, M.I. (2005). Tansley Review - The evolutionary ecology of myco-heterotrophy. New Phytologist 167: 335-352.
Bidartondo, M.I. & Bruns, T.D. (2005). On the origins of extreme mycorrhizal specificity in the Monotropoideae (Ericaceae): performance trade-offs during seed germination and seedling development. Molecular Ecology 14: 1549-1560.