Keith Seifert
Adjunct Research Professor
| Degrees: | B.Sc. (Waterloo), M.Sc. (UBC), Ph.D. (Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht) |
| Email: | keith.seifert@carleton.ca |
| Office: | at home |
Current Research
I am a retired mycologist, formerly employed by Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada, and am now a freelance writer. My research expertise was the taxonomy of the asexual fungi known as Hyphomycetes, especially genera such as Fusarium and Penicillium that produce mycotoxins. My research involved the collection and culturing of fungi from agricultural (especially those producing mycotoxins) and other ecosystems (such as forests or the indoor environment), microscopy, DNA-based phylogenetics, the description of new species and genera, and the development of identification systems that can be used by other people scientists, based on either DNA or microscopy. I was very active in fungal DNA barcoding, which has led to a later interest in environmental metagenomics and fungal genomics. My specimens and cultures are deposited in the Canadian National Mycological Herbarium and the Canadian Collection of Fungal Cultures. I am now retired and writing books on the impact of science on human affairs.
I am no longer active in laboratory research but do participate in graduate student committees.
Selected Publications
Seifert, K. 2022. The Hidden Kingdom: Exploring the Microscopic World in Our Forests, Homes, and Bodies. Greystone Books, Vancouver (Book for general readers).
Seifert, K.A., De Beer, Z.W., and Wingfield, M.J. (2013). Ophiostomatoid Fungi: Expanding Frontiers. CBS Biodiversity Series 12, The Netherlands: CBS Fungal Diversity Centre, Utrecht, The Netherlands. (Book)
Tanney JB, Seifert KA. 2020. Mollisiaceae: An overlooked lineage of diverse endophytes. Studies in Mycology 95: 293–380.
Visagie CM, Hirooka Y, Tanney JB, Whitfield E, Mwange K, Meijer M, Amend AS, Seifert KA, Samson RA. 2014b. Aspergillus, Penicillium and Talaromyces isolated from house dust samples collected around the world. Studies in Mycology 78: 63–140.
Schoch, C.L., Seifert, K.A., Huhndorf, S.M., Robert, V.A., Spouge, J.L., Lévesque, C.A., Chen, W., and Fungal Barcoding Consortium, (2012). Nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region as a universal DNA barcode marker for Fungi., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (PNAS), 109(16), pp. 6241-6246. doi : 10.1073/pnas.1117018109
Seifert, K.A., Morgan-Jones, G.A., Gams, W., and Kendrick, B. (Eds.) (2011). The Genera of Hyphomycetes. CBS Biodiversity Series 10., CBS Fungal Diversity Centre, Utrecht, The Netherlands. 997 pp. (Book)
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