{"id":57859,"date":"2015-12-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-12-17T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-undergrads-research-questions-scientific-discoveries-of-human-associated-fungi-in-seafloor-sediments\/"},"modified":"2015-12-17T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-12-17T00:00:00","slug":"uri-undergrads-research-questions-scientific-discoveries-of-human-associated-fungi-in-seafloor-sediments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2015\/12\/uri-undergrads-research-questions-scientific-discoveries-of-human-associated-fungi-in-seafloor-sediments\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 undergrad\u2019s research questions scientific \u2018discoveries\u2019 of human-associated fungi in seafloor sediments"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tNARRAGANSETT, R.I. \u2013 December 17, 2015 \u2013 Several surprising research papers have been published in recent years claiming to have discovered nearly 100 varieties of fungi in seafloor sediments up to 1,740 meters deep. While some fungi are known to live in marine environments, especially on corals and seaweeds, most of the fungi found in the sediments were species not known to inhabit the ocean.<\/p>\n


\n\tEnter 溏心vlog免费B站 senior Victoria Fulfer, a microbiology major from Carlisle, Pa., intent on a career in medical research. She took a job in a lab at the 溏心vlog免费B站 Graduate School of Oceanography last year and was encouraged by Professor Steven D\u2019Hondt, an expert on subseafloor life, to investigate the validity of the fungi findings. <\/p>\n


\nFulfer investigated the six research papers and noted the genus or species of each variety of fungi mentioned, then determined the habitat where each is typically found. Most were not native to marine habitats but were instead species that grow on human skin, in human-created indoor environments, or on terrestrial plants or soils. In one paper, 57 percent of the fungi mentioned were associated with human environments.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cI\u2019m the first person to formally question the findings in these papers, so it\u2019s a bit controversial,\u201d said Fulfer. \u201cBut it\u2019s definitely a concern that so many of the fungi have this human association. It makes us think that it could be that the samples collected for those papers were contaminated. It highlights the need for better quality control when collecting and handling the samples.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nFulfer\u2019s research is being presented this week at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in San Francisco. The conference is the largest gathering of earth, ocean and space scientists in the world.<\/p>\n


\nThe 溏心vlog免费B站 undergraduate said that it has only been a few years since the deepest claims of bacteria living in sediments were published, which raised the question about whether other types of organisms could live there as well. She said it is certainly conceivable that some fungi could survive in shallow sediments, though she thinks it would more likely be fungal spores rather than the mature organism.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cThe fact that we found human associated fungi to be fairly ubiquitous in both deep and shallow sediments was another red flag for us,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n


\nFulfer is in the process of writing a research paper about her findings that she plans to submit to a peer-reviewed scientific journal. If accepted, it would be her first research publication.<\/p>\n


\nHer experience working in an oceanographic research lab has Fulfer rethinking her career objective.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cI started out knowing nothing about oceanography, and here I am two years later applying to grad school in oceanography,\u201d she said. \u201cI like the interdisciplinary aspect of oceanography. Combining geology, physics, biology and chemistry has been interesting. There are a lot of avenues I could take.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nShe hasn\u2019t entirely ruled out earning a doctorate in immunology to become a medical researcher, however.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cI\u2019m hoping my experience at AGU will guide me in my decision,\u201d Fulfer said. \u201cI hope to meet people who could be potential advisors and open my eyes to see whether oceanography is where my passion lies.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nPhoto by Joe Giblin\n\t<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NARRAGANSETT, R.I. \u2013 December 17, 2015 \u2013 Several surprising research papers have been published in recent years claiming to have discovered nearly 100 varieties of fungi in seafloor sediments up to 1,740 meters deep. While some fungi are known to live in marine environments, especially on corals and seaweeds, most of the fungi found in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57861,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}