Summary: I have a long-standing interest in the diversity, taxonomy, ecology, biogeography, and evolution of porcini mushrooms. Ongoing research in my lab is focused on two areas:

1) documenting porcini diversity worldwide
2) population genetics/phylogeography/host specialization in Boletus edulis

I would be very grateful for donations of portions of porcini mushrooms that could contribute to these two areas. Specifically, for the first study, I am interested in any potentially new species of porcini, particularly from North America (especially incl. Mexico) and Papua New Guinea. From the latter region, any species would be of great interest. I am currently accumulating a molecular dataset that will (hopefully!) be published soon along with online tools for identifying species of porcini with a continuously updated phylogeny.

For the second project, I would like portions of Boletus edulis from across North America (especially Mexico!) and northern Central America to be used for low coverage whole genome sequencing. These samples would be a major contribution to an ongoing study looking for genome-wide changes associated with migration to/from North America/Eurasia and potential genetic changes that correlate with different host associations. My current dataset includes mostly samples from western Europe, so I am especially interested in any samples that might help fill in the map, particularly eastern Eurasia and northwestern North America (e.g., Alaska), but also the northern Rocky mountains and Mexico. I am also interested in understanding phenology better, so any specimens that occur early or late would also be of great interest to me.

Thanks for your help!