John W. Taylor (professor)

John Waldo Taylor is an American scientist who researches fungal evolution and ecology. He is professor of the graduate school in the department of plant and microbia biology at the University of California, Berkeley.

John W. Taylor
Born1950
Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Mycologist, evolutionary biologist, ecologist
Academic background
Alma materUniversity of California, Berkeley

University of California, Davis

University of Georgia
Doctoral advisorKenneth Wells
Other advisorsMelvin Fuller
Academic work
DisciplineMycology
Sub-disciplineEvolution, Ecology
InstitutionsUniversity of California, Berkeley

Education

John W. Taylor grew up in Los Angeles, California, and graduated from University High School in 1968. He completed an AB in Ecology at the University of California, Berkeley in 1972. There, he began his research career with a senior thesis on mycorrhizal plants under the supervision of the mycologist, Professor Ralph Emerson. He entered a combined master's and doctorate program in botany at the University of California, Davis, in 1972. There, he use electron microscopy to study nuclear division in the basidiomycete yeast, Bullera alba,[1] under the supervision of the mycologist, Professor Kenneth Wells. In 1978 he began postdoctoral studies at the University of Georgia under the supervision of Professor Melvin Fuller. There, he studied the ultrastructure of zoospore development in the chytridiomycete fungus, Chytriomyces hyalinus.[2] While at Georgia, he engaged in discussions about molecular evolution with researchers in the genetics department where his wife, Delia Barnes Taylor, worked on DNA transformation of plants. In 1980, Taylor accepted an assistant professorship in what is now the department of microbial biology at the University of California, Berkeley. In his first few years at Berkeley, he completed ultrastructural research begun in Georgia while shifting his focus to molecular evolution of fungi, beginning with the model filamentous fungus, Neurospora.[3]

Career

Taylor has been a professor in plant and microbial biology at the University of California, Berkeley, since 1980. He was a Miller Research Professor in 1999. He was chair of the graduate group in microbiology and associate chair of the department of plant and microbial biology at UC Berkeley 2003 to 2009. He was a founding co-director of the computational genomics resource laboratory at UC Berkeley (2011-2017).

Taylor was elected president of the Mycological Society of America for 2002-2003 and president of the International Mycological Association from 2010-2014. He serves or has served on the editorial boards of mBIO, Mycologia, Mycological Research, Fungal Genetics and Biology, and IMA Fungus.

Taylor was chair of the program committee for the Mycological Society of American Annual Meeting (1990), chair of the program committee for the International Union of Microbiological Societies Mycological Congress (2005), co-chair, Gordon Research Conference on Cellular and Molecular Fungal Biology (2006-2008), and co-chair, Mycological Society of America Annual Meeting (2016). He served the Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures (now, Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute) on their scientific advisory board (2000-2010) and has served the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research on their scientific boards on integrated microbial diversity (2010-2018) and Fungal Kingdom: Threats and Opportunities (2019-2024).

Research

In 1990, Taylor's lab group published protocols for fungal PCR[4] that were developed in Berkeley by a team including sabbatical visitor, Dr. Thomas J. White (who had directed the development of PCR - polymerase chain reaction - at CETUS corporation[5]), postdoc Thomas D. Bruns and student Steven B. Lee. Their approach has been very influential in fungal evolution and ecology [ ]. Taylor and White continued their collaboration by focusing on the evolution of two human pathogenic fungi, Coccidioides immitis[6][7] and Histoplasma capsulatum.[8] Taylor and colleagues also applied PCR to fungal phylogeny[9][10] and fitting phylogeny to geologic time.[11][12] As DNA sequencing costs dropped, they used population genetics to recognize fungal species[13] and describe them, based solely on DNA variation.[14][15] Their approach for phylogenetic recognition of fungal species has become the standard for mycology.[16][17] Their work on species recognition led them to show that fungi have evolved reinforced barriers to mating, in this case the first evidence for female mate choice in a microbe.[18] DNA sequence data were then used to detect recombination in fungi for which sex had never been observed, despite years of inquiry.[19] The combination of nucleic acid phylogeny and detection of reproductive mode brought an end to the centuries-old practice of classifying fungi for which sex had been observed apart from those where the morphology of sex remained obscure.[20] Taylor’s lab then turned to phylogenomics to find that human pathogenic fungi had evolved away from consuming plant cell walls toward consuming animal protein,[21] suggesting that small mammals constitute a reservoir for some fungal diseases.[22] Their next research featured the use of population genomics to identify genes under selection, followed by use of the gene’s function to form hypotheses for environmental features driving adaptation, and capped by testing the hypotheses by gene deletion - an approach they termed “reverse ecology”.[23] Having characterized populations by genomics, they collaborated with Professors Louise Glass and Rachel Brem at UC Berkeley in genome wide association studies of fungal signaling.[24] In the past decade, Taylor, in collaborations with Professor Tom Bruns and Dr. Peggy Lemaux of University of California, Berkeley, has used PCR identification of environmental samples to focus on fungal community ecology in indoor air,[25] ectomycorrhizal forests,[26] and the drought resistant crop plant, sorghum.[27][28]

Honors and distinctions
  • Taylor received the Distinguished Teaching Award from the College of Natural Resources at UC Berkeley (2005) and the WH Weston Award for Teaching from the Mycological Society of America (1994).
  • DeBary Medal from the International Mycological Association (2018), Von Arx Medal from the Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute (2012). Distinguished Mycologist from the Mycological Society of America (2018), Lucille K. Georg Medal, International Society for Human and Animal Mycology (2003), Rhoda Benham Medal, Medical Mycological Society of the Americas (2004), Alexopolous Prize from the Mycological Society of America (1986), Taylor has been elected Fellow of: American Association for the Advancement of Science (2000), American Academy of Microbiology (1998), International Mycological Association (2018), Mycological Society of America (2005), and California Academy of Science (1993).
  • Taylor was invited to deliver the Keynote presentation at the International Mycological Congress (2010) and the Perkins-Metzenberg Lecture at the Fungal Genetics Conference (2019).
  • Two awards have been established in Taylor's honor: the Taylor-White Endowed Lecture at UC Berkeley (2011)[29] and the John Taylor Graduate Student Research Award of the Mycological Society of America (2019).

References
  1. Taylor, J. W.; Wells, K. (1979-03-01). "A light and electron microscopic study of mitosis inBullera alba and the histochemistry of some cytoplasmic substances". Protoplasma. 98 (1): 31–62. doi:10.1007/BF01676661. ISSN 1615-6102. S2CID 29948224.
  2. Taylor, John W.; Fuller, Melvin S. (1981-03-01). "The Golgi apparatus, zoosporogenesis, and development of the zoospore discharge apparatus of Chytridium confervae". Experimental Mycology. 5 (1): 35–59. doi:10.1016/0147-5975(81)90005-0. ISSN 0147-5975.
  3. May, Georgiana; Taylor, John W. (May 1989). "Independent transfer of mitochondrial plasmids in Neurospora crassa". Nature. 339 (6222): 320–322. Bibcode:1989Natur.339..320M. doi:10.1038/339320a0. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 2524667. S2CID 19739852.
  4. White, T.J.; Bruns, T.; Lee, S.; Taylor, J. (1990), "Amplification and Direct Sequencing of Fungal Ribosomal RNA Genes for Phylogenetics", PCR Protocols, Elsevier, pp. 315–322, doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-372180-8.50042-1, ISBN 978-0-12-372180-8, S2CID 85783615
  5. Rabinow, Paul (1996). Making PCR. University of Chicago Press. doi:10.7208/chicago/9780226216874.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-226-70147-9.
  6. Bruns, T D; White, T J; Taylor, J W (1991-11-01). "Fungal Molecular Systematics". Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics. 22 (1): 525–564. doi:10.1146/annurev.es.22.110191.002521. ISSN 0066-4162.
  7. Bowman, B. H.; Taylor, J. W.; White, T. J. (1992-09-01). "Molecular evolution of the fungi: human pathogens". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 9 (5): 893–904. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.molbev.a040766. ISSN 0737-4038. PMID 1528111.
  8. Kasuga, Takao; White, Thomas J.; Koenig, Gina; Mcewen, Juan; Restrepo, Angela; Castañeda, Elizabetha; Lacaz, Carlos Da Silva; Heins‐Vaccari, Elisabeth M.; Freitas, Roseli S. De; Zancopé‐Oliveira, Rosely M.; Qin, Zhenyu (2003). "Phylogeography of the fungal pathogen Histoplasma capsulatum". Molecular Ecology. 12 (12): 3383–3401. doi:10.1046/j.1365-294X.2003.01995.x. ISSN 1365-294X. PMID 14629354. S2CID 13060796.
  9. Lee, S. B.; Taylor, J. W. (1992-07-01). "Phylogeny of five fungus-like protoctistan Phytophthora species, inferred from the internal transcribed spacers of ribosomal DNA". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 9 (4): 636–653. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.molbev.a040750. ISSN 0737-4038. PMID 1630304.
  10. Berbee, Mary L.; Taylor, John W. (1992-03-01). "18S Ribosomal RNA gene sequence characters place the human pathogenSporothrix schenckii in the genusOphiostoma". Experimental Mycology. 16 (1): 87–91. doi:10.1016/0147-5975(92)90044-R. ISSN 0147-5975.
  11. Berbee, Mary L.; Taylor, John W. (1993-08-01). "Dating the evolutionary radiations of the true fungi". Canadian Journal of Botany. 71 (8): 1114–1127. doi:10.1139/b93-131. ISSN 0008-4026.
  12. Taylor, John W.; Berbee, Mary L. (2006-11-01). "Dating divergences in the Fungal Tree of Life: review and new analyses". Mycologia. 98 (6): 838–849. doi:10.1080/15572536.2006.11832614. ISSN 0027-5514. PMID 17486961. S2CID 218590230.
  13. Koufopanou, Vassiliki; Burt, Austin; Taylor, John W. (1997-05-13). "Concordance of gene genealogies reveals reproductive isolation in the pathogenic fungus Coccidioides immitis". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 94 (10): 5478–5482. Bibcode:1997PNAS...94.5478K. doi:10.1073/pnas.94.10.5478. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 24704. PMID 9144263.
  14. Fisher, Matthew C.; Koenig, Gina L.; White, Thomas J.; San-Blas, Gioconda; Negroni, Ricardo; Alvarez, Isidro Gutiérrez; Wanke, Bodo; Taylor, John W. (2001-04-10). "Biogeographic range expansion into South America by Coccidioides immitis mirrors New World patterns of human migration". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 98 (8): 4558–4562. doi:10.1073/pnas.071406098. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 31873. PMID 11287648.
  15. Fisher, M. C.; Koenig, G. L.; White, T. J.; Taylor, J. W. (2002-01-01). "Molecular and phenotypic description of Coccidioides posadasii sp. nov., previously recognized as the non-California population of Coccidioides immitis". Mycologia. 94 (1): 73–84. doi:10.1080/15572536.2003.11833250. hdl:10044/1/4213. ISSN 0027-5514. PMID 21156479. S2CID 28959982.
  16. Taylor, John W.; Jacobson, David J.; Kroken, Scott; Kasuga, Takao; Geiser, David M.; Hibbett, David S.; Fisher, Matthew C. (2000-10-01). "Phylogenetic Species Recognition and Species Concepts in Fungi". Fungal Genetics and Biology. 31 (1): 21–32. doi:10.1006/fgbi.2000.1228. ISSN 1087-1845. PMID 11118132.
  17. Dettman, Jeremy R.; Jacobson, David J.; Taylor, John W. (2003). "A Multilocus Genealogical Approach to Phylogenetic Species Recognition in the Model Eukaryote Neurospora". Evolution. 57 (12): 2703–2720. doi:10.1111/j.0014-3820.2003.tb01514.x. ISSN 1558-5646. PMID 14761051.
  18. Turner, Elizabeth; Jacobson, David J.; Taylor, John W. (2011-08-18). "Genetic Architecture of a Reinforced, Postmating, Reproductive Isolation Barrier between Neurospora Species Indicates Evolution via Natural Selection". PLOS Genetics. 7 (8): e1002204. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1002204. ISSN 1553-7404. PMC 3158040. PMID 21876674.
  19. Burt, A.; Carter, D. A.; Koenig, G. L.; White, T. J.; Taylor, J. W. (1996-01-23). "Molecular markers reveal cryptic sex in the human pathogen Coccidioides immitis". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 93 (2): 770–773. Bibcode:1996PNAS...93..770B. doi:10.1073/pnas.93.2.770. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 40130. PMID 8570632.
  20. Taylor, John W. (December 2011). "One Fungus = One Name: DNA and fungal nomenclature twenty years after PCR". IMA Fungus. 2 (2): 113–120. doi:10.5598/imafungus.2011.02.02.01. ISSN 2210-6359. PMC 3359808. PMID 22679595.
  21. Sharpton, Thomas J.; Stajich, Jason E.; Rounsley, Steven D.; Gardner, Malcolm J.; Wortman, Jennifer R.; Jordar, Vinita S.; Maiti, Rama; Kodira, Chinnappa D.; Neafsey, Daniel E.; Zeng, Qiandong; Hung, Chiung-Yu (2009-10-01). "Comparative genomic analyses of the human fungal pathogens Coccidioides and their relatives". Genome Research. 19 (10): 1722–1731. doi:10.1101/gr.087551.108. ISSN 1088-9051. PMC 2765278. PMID 19717792.
  22. Taylor, John W.; Barker, Bridget M. (2019-02-01). "The endozoan, small-mammal reservoir hypothesis and the life cycle of Coccidioides species". Medical Mycology. 57 (Supplement_1): S16–S20. doi:10.1093/mmy/myy039. ISSN 1369-3786. PMC 6702415. PMID 30690603.
  23. Ellison, Christopher E.; Hall, Charles; Kowbel, David; Welch, Juliet; Brem, Rachel B.; Glass, N. L.; Taylor, John W. (2011-02-15). "Population genomics and local adaptation in wild isolates of a model microbial eukaryote". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 108 (7): 2831–2836. Bibcode:2011PNAS..108.2831E. doi:10.1073/pnas.1014971108. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 3041088. PMID 21282627.
  24. Palma-Guerrero, Javier; Hall, Charles R.; Kowbel, David; Welch, Juliet; Taylor, John W.; Brem, Rachel B.; Glass, N. Louise (2013-08-01). "Genome Wide Association Identifies Novel Loci Involved in Fungal Communication". PLOS Genetics. 9 (8): e1003669. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1003669. ISSN 1553-7404. PMC 3731230. PMID 23935534.
  25. Adams, Rachel I.; Miletto, Marzia; Taylor, John W.; Bruns, Thomas D. (July 2013). "Dispersal in microbes: fungi in indoor air are dominated by outdoor air and show dispersal limitation at short distances". The ISME Journal. 7 (7): 1262–1273. doi:10.1038/ismej.2013.28. ISSN 1751-7370. PMC 3695294. PMID 23426013.
  26. Talbot, Jennifer M.; Bruns, Thomas D.; Taylor, John W.; Smith, Dylan P.; Branco, Sara; Glassman, Sydney I.; Erlandson, Sonya; Vilgalys, Rytas; Liao, Hui-Ling; Smith, Matthew E.; Peay, Kabir G. (2014-04-29). "Endemism and functional convergence across the North American soil mycobiome". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 111 (17): 6341–6346. Bibcode:2014PNAS..111.6341T. doi:10.1073/pnas.1402584111. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 4035912. PMID 24733885.
  27. Gao, Cheng; Montoya, Liliam; Xu, Ling; Madera, Mary; Hollingsworth, Joy; Purdom, Elizabeth; Singan, Vasanth; Vogel, John; Hutmacher, Robert B.; Dahlberg, Jeffery A.; Coleman-Derr, Devin (2020-01-07). "Fungal community assembly in drought-stressed sorghum shows stochasticity, selection, and universal ecological dynamics". Nature Communications. 11 (1): 34. Bibcode:2020NatCo..11...34G. doi:10.1038/s41467-019-13913-9. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 6946711. PMID 31911594.
  28. Varoquaux, Nelle; Cole, Benjamin; Gao, Cheng; Pierroz, Grady; Baker, Christopher R.; Patel, Dhruv; Madera, Mary; Jeffers, Tim; Hollingsworth, Joy; Sievert, Julie; Yoshinaga, Yuko (2019-12-26). "Transcriptomic analysis of field-droughted sorghum from seedling to maturity reveals biotic and metabolic responses". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 116 (52): 27124–27132. Bibcode:2019PNAS..11627124V. doi:10.1073/pnas.1907500116. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 6936495. PMID 31806758.
  29. "Endowed Lectures: Taylor-White". University of California, Berkeley. 2020. Retrieved August 12, 2020.
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