Retired from lab research, I continue to develop the hypothesis that terrestrial fungi express a conserved intracellular protoplast phase as part of their endophytic life cycle within plants.
My interest in fungi evolved from a plant question: how and why numerous plant lineages independently evolved the ability to parasitize other plants via similar tumor-like structures called haustoria.
I considered the possibility that a common genetic denominator might be symbiotic microbes that facilitate their own transmission by influencing haustoria formation. However, ultrastructural studies failed to locate candidate microbes within the tumor-like tissues.