Mystery of the Canadian Whiskey Fungus – Ethanol as a Fungal Carbon Source

Adam Rogers from Wired magazine writes on the strange phenomenon of black mold growing in abundance in houses near the Hiram Walker Distillery in Lakeshore, Ontario. In a great example of layman science writing Rogers follows the exploits of Dr. James Scott as he unravels the ubiquitous invasive black fungus.

“When he arrived at the warehouse, the first thing he noticed (after “the beautiful, sweet, mellow smell of aging Canadian whiskey,” he says) was the black stuff. It was everywhere—on the walls of buildings, on chain-link fences, on metal street signs, as if a battalion of Dickensian chimney sweeps had careened through town. “In the back of the property, there was an old stainless steel fermenter tank,” Scott says. “It was lying on its side, and it had this fungus growing all over it. Stainless steel!” The whole point of stainless steel is that things don’t grow on it.

Standing at a black-stained fence, Doyle explained that the distillery had been trying to solve the mystery for more than a decade. Mycologists at the University of Windsor were stumped. A team from the Scotch Whisky Association’s Research Institute had taken samples and concluded it was just a thick layer of normal environmental fungi: Aspergillus, Exophiala, stuff like that. Ubiquitous and—maybe most important—in no way the distillery’s fault.

Scott shook his head. “David,” he said, “that’s not what it is. It’s something completely different.””

Whole article can be read here: Mystery of the Canadian Whiskey Fungus

UC Davis Seminars this week…

Monday, November 14th

Agricultural & Environmental Chemistry AGC 290-001- 4:10-6:00, 1 Wellman-Brian Bergamachi, USGS “DOC and Hg variability fluxes in tidal systems – SF Bay-v-Florida Mangroves”

GGG Seminar in Genomics & Epigenetics 4:10 pm 1022 LSA- Steve Henikoff, Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center, Histone variants, nucleosome dynamics and epigenetic inheritance

Plant Pathology PLP 290 -9:00-9:50, 115 Hutchison

Tuesday, November 15th

Department of Chemistry 4:00-5:00pm Chem 179-Jon S. Thorson (Chen host), School of Pharmacy, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Center for Population Biology (CPB) Seminar Series 4:10 – 5:30PM 1022 Life Sciences Building-Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra, Assistant Professor: Dept. of Plant Sciences, UC Davis “Population genetics of teosinte”

Bioinformatics Tech Forum – 11:00 – 4202 GBSF (biweekly)

Wednesday, November 16th

BMCDB Student Seminars – 1:00 – 1022 LSA (free pizza) (biweekly)- Gordon Walker, Bisson Lab Viticulture & Enology Department “Saccharomyces cerevisiae Wine Isolates Learn To Overcome Glucose-Associated Repression, Via A Novel Prion Mechanism”

Entomology Departmental Seminar ENT 297N- 12:10-1:00 pm, 122 Briggs-Martha Weiss, associate professor, Department of Biology, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., will speak on “Lepidopteran Learning and Memory: Caterpillars, Butterflies, and the Mysterious In-Between.” Host: Meredith Cenzer, graduate student, Louie Yang lab.

Epigenomics Focus Group-Coffee at 9:30 am, Talks 10:00 -11:00 am 4202 of GBSF (monthly-every 3rd Wednesday)

Food Science & Technology Seminar 4:10 – 5:00 pm, Room 1207, RMI South Sensory Theater (occasionally has snacks)-Diane Barrett, UCD Food Science & Technology. Life with Fruits, Vegetables and Real Live Nuts in the Barrett Group

Geography Seminar Series (Geo 297), What’s Space Got to do with it? 4:10-5:30pm Hoagland 113 (refreshments!)-Arthur Shapiro, Professor of Evolution and Ecology, UC Davis. Topic: Argentine Butterflies. Presentation title: “Butterflies in the Argentine Andes and Patagonia: The Facts on the Ground.”

MIC 291 Seminar Series 4:10-5:30 PM 1022 Life Sciences Building-Susan House (Dawson Lab)  Exit Seminar

Plant Sciences Departmental Seminar 12pm-1pm PES 3001-Arnold Bloom: “A new phytohormone and they still do it in the dark”

Textiles Graduate Group Seminar (TXC 290) 4:10-5pm 135 Everson Hall

Thursday, November 17th

Ecology and Evolution Seminar Series 4:10-5:30 p.m 1001 Giedt Hall-Presenter(s): Steve Pacala, Princeton University, “The Future of the Land Carbon Sink” Sponsored By: CBS Dean’s Office

MCB Joint Seminar Series 4:10pm 1022 LSA (snacks)-Mark Winey (Colorado; Scott Dawson)

Postharvest Biology Seminar (PBI 293) 12:10pm 163 Olson-Films to absorb ethylene Longling Wang, Bio-control Francine Pupin

Department of Statistics Seminars 4:10 – 5:30pm, Colloquium Room 1147 Mathematical Sciences (Refreshments at 3.30pm in Statistics Lounge, 4110 Mathematical Sciences)-Ori Davidov U Haifa, Israel. The linear stochastic order and directed inference for multivariate ordered distributions.

Friday, November 18th

Biotechnology Program Seminar (MCB/ECH 294) 11:00 AM 1022 LSA-My Circuitous Journey to CIRM. Arie Abo, PhD, Science Officer. California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM)

Emerging Challenges in Microbiology and Immunology 12:10 1005 GBSF (often has snacks)-TBD

Plant Biology Seminar Series 12:10pm 1022 Life Sciences- Bernd (Markus) Lange (Washington State University) “En route to the supermint – integrative approaches for engineering essential oil biosynthesis.” Host, Florence Zakharov (fnegre@ucdavis.edu).

Viticulture & Enology Seminar 12:10 RMI Silverado Sensory Theater- check back on Wednesday for speaker and talk title