INVAM

Beautiful AMF spore images

Massive thanks to those that have been rallying to help save @invam.bsky.social. Research on fungal life, climate resilience, agriculture, and ecosystem restoration depends on living collections like INVAM and on the staff who sustain them.

🔗 Donate: invam.ku.edu/donate

Research collections like INVAM don’t exist without community support. Thank you to everyone helping amplify why this work matters.

Thank you for sharing and standing with us at INVAM. Continued visibility and community support mean a great deal as we work to sustain this globally important fungal resource.

🍄 Invest in the future of fungal science!
The INVAM Endowment at KU has a new Donor Support page. Your gift sustains INVAM's global fungal collection and supports research worldwide.
👉Help spread the word through your fungal network.
invam.ku.edu/donate

Defunding fungi: US’s living library of ‘vital ecosystem engineers’ is in danger of closing These fungi boost plant growth and restore depleted ecosystems, but federal funding for a library housing them has been cut – and it may be forced to close

@invam.bsky.social collection, prairies, and AMF all featured in the awesome article

Defunding fungi: US’s living library of ‘vital ecosystem engineers’ is in danger of closing www.theguardian.com/environment/...

A poster on 8.5 x 11 inch paper saga Fishtown fish facts: red lipped catfish or of ocephalus Darwini. Then a pic of that freaky fish with 4 limbs it rests on the ground and then the words “stg this fish real red-lipped batfish walk ocean floor with they flippers RLBF have RBF, not they fault RLBF have a bioluminescent lure that glows to attract dinner RLBF lipgloss is popping, RLBF lipgloss is cool, all the fish keep jockin, they chase RLBF after school RLBF got scales like armor and shine bright like a diamond Red-lipped batfish will teach you how to dougie, I can promise u that. @yaboyni Take a moment And and realize the moment You took has already passed Thank you See you next time

One of my neighbors has been putting up these fish facts posters. All kinds of different fish, marine, freshwater, deep, shallow, all kinds. This is a good one. “Stg this real fish” took me out. Good work, neighbor.

Thrilled to see the INVAM fungal collection—and our dedicated curators—featured in the Fall issue of @sierramagazine.bsky.social Preserving the world’s largest library of mycorrhizal fungi to power ecosystem restoration, science, and sustainable ag. 🦠🌱🌍

🔗 digital.sierramagazine.org/publication/...

Apply for a research grant to come visit us at INVAM!

If you're looking to visit (a) herbarium collection(s), or improve or maintain small collections of plants/fungi/algae, consider applying for an @iaptglobal.bsky.social Research Grant or Small Collections Grant! Applications for the 2026 round will open soon. www.iaptglobal.org/grants

Cover of the BMS's Fungal Ecology journal

📣 Call for papers! Special issue of #FungalEcology on “Fungal conservation: from knowledge to actions” co-edited by Susana C. Gonçalves @cfemycolab.bsky.social & Jonathan Cazabonne @jonathancazabonne.bsky.social. Deadline for manuscripts: 31 Jan 2026. Find out more: www.linkedin.com/company/brit...

Call for symposia at @ICOM2026 is open until 15 October.
The 13 conference of @mycorrhiza_ims #Mycorrhiza will take place in Cairns, Australia, 12-17 July 2026!
@southmycorrhiza @karst_justine @fmartin1954 @1pantunes #soil #fungi

icom2026.org/symposia/

Microscope eyepiece in focus with a cell phone camera.

Microscope eyepiece out of focus

A landscape architect visited INVAM. We showed that while our compound scope + $$$$ camera setup takes stunning shots of fungi in roots, you can still get surprisingly good ones with a $300 box-store scope and a phone. Check out these roots—AM fungal structures stained dark blue, absolutely loaded!

We are hiring a full time lab technician to assist with several long-term richness/biodiversity/microbe/drought/restoration manupulation experiments at the KU field station. Applications due this week! Please share.

Job Posting - Research Technician share.google/GsSTtiW4rIm5...

TraitAM, a global spore trait database for arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi - Scientific Data Scientific Data - TraitAM, a global spore trait database for arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi

Access the full paper and data here! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The latest publication from our lab!

The famous "glomalin" from arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi is not a protein but a polysaccharide from AM fungi, so we renamed it "glomalose". Glomalin-related proteins are bacterial proteins stuck in this glomalose.
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

This podcast explores INVAM, the world's largest AM fungi collection housed at @universityofkansas.bsky.social, to uncover what makes #mycorrhizae great!

🧪🦠🔬🍄🌏

New episode of Up From Dust!

Soil health is all the rage. It's also big $$$. But what if the products you're buying aren't worth the dough?

Come learn about a kind of microbe everyone wants in their soil -- and the billion-dollar industry that sells it. www.kcur.org/2025-04-01/t...

Nine species of AM fungal spores. So pretty!

Teaching the Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi lab next week at @universityofkansas.bsky.social! I’ve prepped spores from ten different species to showcase the diversity in color, shape, and size. Fungal diversity is truly beautiful!
🍄🧪🦠🌏

Huge thanks to @invam.bsky.social for donating the materials!

#sciart

Uncovering Diversity within the Glomeromycota: Novel Clades, Family Distributions, and Land Use Sensitivity Using a recently developed pipeline for phylogenetic placement of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) with samples across sites in Alaska, Kansas, and Brazil, we find evidence for three putative novel...

Check out our new paper using our database and pipeline to uncover novel diversity in AMF! As always, made possible by an amazing team effort ✨
dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3...

Hey BlueSky! I made a starter pack for folks working on mycorrhizal symbioses. LMK who else to include! go.bsky.app/285P8Tn

I’ve merged both starter packs - here’s 71 microbial natural products researchers - want to be added? Let me know! go.bsky.app/72NeGsT #microsky #secmet #naturalproducts #specializedmetabolites

How resilient are AMF cultures? Gi. decipiens SCT711C and Paraglomus sp. SCT771G stored for 8 years at 4C still kicking and alive. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year for you all folks!! Cheers

Spores of AM fungi in the shape of a Christmas tree.

Happy holidays y'all #mycosky 🦠

Gigaspora day is a good day. 😁

Second day of the X Workshop on Taxonomy of Glomeromycota and we already discussed the spore development model, observed 10 spp. in Gigasporaceae, discussed methods to grow these fungi and visited facilities of CICG. We are ready to dive in Acaulosporaceae and Entrophosporaceae tomorrow!!

Please add us, thanks!

Hi Matthias, please add INVAM to the list. Thanks!

Mycorrhizal ecology Join the conversation

Hello,

I think we need a starter pack on mycorrhizal ecology, don't you think?

I started on one, who did I miss...

go.bsky.app/bqwe5h