Now published in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (first author Dr. Shang-Yi Lin): MIC testing of 200+ clinical and environmental Scedosporium and Lomentospora isolates across 10 species and 6 antifungals shows that susceptibility is not just species-dependent but strongly strain-dependent (up to 8–16× within a species) — while the new...
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News
A biocontrol fungus for the lychee stink bug
Purpureocillium takamizusanense — Scientific Reports
Led by Pei-Hsin Lo, we show that Purpureocillium takamizusanense, isolated from naturally infected lychee stink bugs in Taiwanese longan orchards, kills its natural host as well as coffee berry borers and southern yellow thrips — matching the star biocontrol agents Beauveria and Metarhizium. Being phylogenetically distant from them, it adds...
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Four wheels that happened to roll
Nutritional strategies of ambrosia fungi — Environmental Microbiology
Congratulations to postdoc Khaled Nayil on another paper! Comparing fungal crops and non-crops across four families, we asked what nutritionally makes a good ambrosia crop — and found no common recipe: each lineage brought its own metabolic toolkit to the partnership. Evolution didn’t reinvent the same wheel four times; it...
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The MEGA Lab lands at NCKU
New nameplate, new chapter in Tainan
The nameplate is up. From February 2026 the lab moves to the Department of Biotechnology and Bioindustry Sciences, National Cheng Kung University, reborn as the MEGA Lab — Microbial Ecology, Genomics, and Applications. Five years of strain collections and hard-won pipelines come along for the ride.
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Sawasdee, Mahidol!
Lab visit to the Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Bangkok
First trip to Thailand, spent visiting Mahidol University’s Faculty of Tropical Medicine — warm hosts, non-stop food comas, a tour of a floor-sized BSL-3 facility, and the start of what we hope is a long research collaboration. (Our current visiting PhD students from Mahidol are part of the harvest!)
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To yeast or not to yeast
Dimorphism across Ophiostomataceae — Fungal Biology
Postdoc Khaled Nayil’s new paper in Fungal Biology maps yeast–hyphae dimorphism across the Ophiostomataceae, combining culture experiments, literature synthesis, and phylogenetics. Dimorphism turns out to be the ancestral trait of the family, repeatedly gained and lost — tracking the ambrosia symbiotic lifestyle, not pathogenicity.
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Congratulations, Dr. Khaled!
Our first PhD, completed in three years
A huge congratulations to our first PhD student, Khaled, for successfully completing his doctoral work in a remarkable three years. We are so proud!
Where people go, Scedosporium follows
Second Medical Mycology paper on Taiwan's soil survey
Our upgraded island-wide soil survey of the opportunistic pathogens Scedosporium and Lomentospora is out in Medical Mycology. With 11 soil chemistry factors and the Human Footprint Index (found by 吳昕懋) in the model, only human impact predicted where these fungi occur — nitrogen, pH and friends showed no correlation.
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Wild genomes of fungal crops
Genome diversification of ambrosia fungi — The ISME Journal
Four years after our metabolomic take on the beetle–fungus symbiosis, the genomic sequel lands in The ISME Journal: despite ~50 million years of partnership, ambrosia fungi from four independent origins show no unified evolutionary direction — their genomes stay remarkably wild, nothing like the domesticated crops of leaf-cutter ants or...
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Which shiitake are you eating?
An interactive IGS1 database for cultivar identification
Led by 歐玠皜, we sequenced full-length rDNA and IGS regions of 41 Taiwanese shiitake strains by Nanopore and built an interactive online database integrating 317 IGS1 sequences from Taiwan, Japan, and China — upload your sequence and find out which cultivar you have. Published in the Journal of Basic Microbiology....
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RNAlater or DESS? Preserving mushroom DNA
Lab paper in Heliyon
Which preservation buffer keeps mushroom DNA happiest? Comparing RNAlater and DESS across 320 field and market samples, we found the two perform essentially the same — unless your extraction protocol includes freeze-drying, where DESS’s salt crystals will make you cry. Published in Heliyon, led by Yu-Ja Li with 歐玠皜 and...
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Scedosporium paper is out!
a comprehensive survey throughout Taiwan
Finally with almost 10 years of survey of these opportunistic fungi in Taiwan. We present their distribution map throughout Taiwan. More things to come for sure :)
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Elite Program Scholarship!
Get funded!
Congrats on Silmi Yusri Rahmadani and Khaled Abdrabo for securing the Elite Program Scholarship from the Ministry of Education of Taiwan for their PhD study!
Great success!
Poster contest
Summer research of college students
吳昕懋 and 曾雯渟 attending the poster contest of the summer student research program. Very proud of them. Keep up with the good works!
New lab members
Welcome!
Welcome our new members in the lab, Guan Jie Phang , Silmi Yusri Rahmadani, and Khaled Abdrabo.
Invited talk
KMU – DOrSU joint online meeting
Yin-Tse Huang was invited to talk about ambrosia beetles/fungi and their adaptation to the mutualistic lifestyle in the joint meeting with Davao Oriental State University. Much appreciated for the invitation
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Invited lecture NCKU
Biology and Genetics of Fungi
Yin-Tse Huang was invited to give a lecture on introducing the ambrosia symbiosis in the class, Biology and Genetics of Fungi, hosted by Pedro Gonçalves.
We had a very interactive class and hands-on labratory observation on fungal specimens! Much appreciated for the invitation.
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Invited talk
Integrated Biology Seminar
Yin-Tse Huang was invited to talk about ambrosia beetles/fungi and their adaptation to the mutualistic lifestyle in the Department of Entomology at National Taiwan University. Much appreciated for the invitation
Photo credit: NTU Entomology
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獲高醫-中山合作計畫補助！
Get funded!
The lab received the inter-university research fund on an environmental microbiome study (NK111P01)!
2021 Christmas party
A joint Huang & Huang Lab Christmas gift exchange party. Having so much fun!
獲新聘教師專案計畫補助第二案！
Get funded!
Another funding for the lab from KMU (KMU-Q111006)!
2021 Recruitment and Retention of Exceptional Faculty Award
獲110年度特殊優秀教研人才
Yin-Tse Huang received the Recruitment and Retention of Exceptional Faculty Award from Ministry of Education of Taiwan.
Thank you for all the support.
Invited talk
2021 Annual Meeting of Mycological Society ROC
Yin-Tse Huang was invited to introduce his ambrosia symbiosis research at the online Annual Meeting of Mycological Society ROC.
Much appreciated for the invitation from Dr. Wei-Chiang Shen at National Taiwan University.
Photo credit: Jie-Hao Ou
We are hiring
徵求計畫助理
【職缺名稱】
學士/碩士級研究助理一位
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獲科技部計畫補助！
Get funded!
YES! the lab gets the prject, Between beetle and fungus: mechanisms determining the fidelity in
ambrosia symbiosis, funded for three years (MOST 110-2621-B-037-002-MY3).
獲新聘教師專案計畫補助！
Get funded!
The very first funding of the lab from KMU (KMU-Q110012A)!
世上最早的「小農」在這裡！菌蠹蟲與真菌缺一不可的共生農業
在泛科學關於小蠹蟲與共生真菌的文章！
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You are what you eat
so you give out what you metabolize
The relationships between wood-boring ambrosia beetles and the fungi which they farm as their sole source of food have long been of interest to anyone concerned with maintaining healthy forests. With millions of years of history between the insects and their fungi, it has been generally assumed that each member...
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