Francois Lutzoni, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Biology

I am interested in both phylogenetic studies of lichen-forming fungi and their use as a model system for the study of mycobiont-photobiont symbiotic interactions and coevolution. The main goals of my phylogenetic studies are to reconstruct the gains and losses of the lichen symbiotic state during the evolution of fungi, their time of origin, to provide a phylogenetic framework for comparative studies, and resolve deep relationships within the Ascomycota to establish a new supraordinal classification for this phylum. I use a model system that includes closely related symbiotic (lichenized) and non-symbiotic species of the mushroom genus Omphalina to study the evolutionary consequences (at the genotypic and phenotypic levels) of transitions to mutualism and to identify potential predispositions for successful transitions. The discovery of key innovations associated with mutualism that led to major adaptive radiations is another driving force of my research.

I use phylogenetic comparative methods to test specific coevolutionary hypotheses and consequences (including shifts in rates of nucleotide substitutions) associated with transitions to a mutualistic state. Research projects in my lab also include population biology studies of shifts in modes of reproduction in lichens, conservation genetics, evolution of introns, evolution of algae and cyanobacteria found in lichens and their co-evolution with lichenized fungi, as well as classical systematic studies of lichen-forming fungi using an integrative approach, i.e., based on detailed morphological, anatomical, chemical (secondary compounds), biogeographical, and molecular data. Because many aspects of my research rely heavily on phylogenetic trees, theoretical aspects of phylogenetic methods such as partition heterogeneity testing, the elaboration of new approaches that permit the integration of ambiguously aligned regions into phylogenetic analyses without violating positional homology, simulation studies to compare various methods to measure phylogenetic uncertainty, and the developement of new methods to account for phylogenetic uncertainty in phylogenetic comparative studies using a Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo approach are much emphasized in my lab.

I am interested in supervising graduate students who wish to conduct evolutionary studies on lichens and closely related non-lichenized fungi. I would be pleased to be on advisory committees of students interested in systematics, molecular phylogenetics, molecular evolution, population biology of fungi, or coevolutionary studies of any type of symbiotic organism.