About
Jason E. Stajich is a bioinformatician who studies the evolution of fungi using comparative and population genomics.
Stajich and his research group sequence and analyze genomes of fungi to resolve phylogenetic relationships and understand the evolution of fungal symbioses with plants, animals, and other microbes. This work includes broad sampling of genomes from across the kingdom, with an emphasis on studies of the zygomycete and chytrid fungi. His studies in population biology are examining genomic variability in human pathogenic fungi Aspergillus fumigatus and Candida species. He develops bioinformatics and comparative approaches to better identify genes that may mediate host-microbe interactions in a variety of plant- and animal-associated fungi. His lab also uses the filamentous fungi Neurospora and Rhizopus to explore genetics of bacteria-fungi interactions.
Awards
- Kavli Fellow, Kavli Frontiers of Science, 2015
- C. J. Alexopoulos Prize, Mycological Society of America, 2014
- Research Fellowship, Miller Institute for Basic Research, 2006-2009
Relevant Publications
Bewick AJ, Hofmeister BT, Powers RA, Mondo SJ, Grigoriev IV, James TY, Stajich JE, Schmitz RJ. Diversity of cytosine methylation across the fungal tree of life. Nat Ecol Evol. 2019 Mar;3(3):479-490
Demers EG, Biermann AR, Masonjones S, Crocker AW, Ashare A, Stajich JE, Hogan DA. Evolution of drug resistance in an antifungal-naive chronic Candida lusitaniae infection. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2018; 115(47):12040-12045.
Nguyen TA, Cissé OH, Yun Wong J, Zheng P, Hewitt D, Nowrousian M, Stajich JE, Jedd G. Innovation and constraint leading to complex multicellularity in the Ascomycota. Nat Commun. 2017; 8:14444.
Spatafora JW, Chang Y, Benny GL, Lazarus K, Smith ME, Berbee ML, Bonito G, Corradi N, Grigoriev I, Gryganskyi A, James TY, O’Donnell K, Roberson RW, Taylor TN, Uehling J, Vilgalys R, White MM, Stajich JE. A phylum-level phylogenetic classification of zygomycete fungi based on genome-scale data. Mycologia 2016;108(5):1028-1046.
Rosenblum EB, James TY, Zamudio KR, Poorten TJ, Ilut D, Rodriguez D, Eastman JM, Richards-Hrdlicka K, Joneson S, Jenkinson TS, Longcore JE, Parra Olea G, Toledo LF, Arellano ML, Medina EM, Restrepo S, Flechas SV, Berger L, Briggs CJ, Stajich JE. Complex history of the amphibian-killing chytrid fungus revealed with genome resequencing data. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013; 110(23):9385-90.