Tomasz Leski

Research focus:
My research interests are mainly focused on broadly understood symbiotic relations between woody plants and fungi. I devote special attention to ectomycorrhiza and ectomycorrhizal fungi which are one of the key elements ensuring the proper functioning of forests in temperate and boreal climate zones.In my studies I use both the conventional mycologic methods consisting in observation of fungal fruitbodies, the molecular identification of ectomycorrhizae (based on Sanger sequencing), and metagenomic analyses of soil fungal communities and fungi related to plant roots based on massive next generation sequencing. The combination of these methods allows a more comprehensive description of diversity of fungi representing various functional groups present in the environment under analysis.
My research is largely focused on diverse forest ecosystems, and deals with both domestic tree species, and with alien and invasive species. Thanks to combining environmental and mycologic data, I also attempt to discover what factors determine the diversity of mycobiota.

Keywords: 

fungi, symbiosis, mycorrhiza, ectomycorrhiza, forest ecosystems, species diversity, functional diversity, molecular studies