Rachel Swenie

Profile

Rachel Swenie is exploring evolutionary relationships and biotrophic nutrition in the Cantharellales, a lineage of approximately 1,000 species sister to the rest of the mushroom-forming fungi (Agaricomycetes). Cantharellales species display a diverse array of morphologies and nutritional modes, from crust-forming saprobes that decay dead organic matter, to pathogenic species that are economically important plant parasites, as well as edible mycorrhizal mushrooms that form mutualisms with common forest trees. Dr. Swenie developed and employed a long-read, high-throughput sequencing method to assess intraspecific genetic diversity and generate targeted genomic data for hundreds of fungal specimens. Using this data, she constructed the first comprehensive phylogeny of the Cantharellales to resolve family-level relationships and assess the origins and timing of the evolution of biotrophic ecologies, including plant pathogens and plant mutualists, across the group.

Within the Cantharellales Dr. Swenie has completed systematic and taxonomic revisions of three genera in eastern North America by integrating morphological, ecological, and molecular phylogenetic data from modern and historical herbarium collections. She has also worked to describe new species of wild edible mushrooms from Pakistan and Central America in collaboration with colleagues from those regions.

Selected Publications:

Caiafa MV, et al. [31 authors]. 2025. Think globally, barcode locally: nine years of macrofungi sampling reveals extensive biodiversity at the Ordway-Swisher Biological Station, a subtropical site in Florida. Fungal Biology 129: 101643. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.funbio.2025.101643

Bily D, Swenie RA, Gyatso T, Smith ME, Matheny PB. 2025. Cantharellus diversity in mixed Quercus forests of Virginia, with a new species Cantharellus sabuletorum. Mycologia 118: 1-20.

Baroni TJ, Swenie RA, Lacey L, Cifuentes J, Halling RE, Lodge DJ, Corrales A, Ovrebo CL, Smith ME. 2025. Hydnum (Cantharellales) of the Neotropics: four new species and new reports from Belize, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Mexico and Panama. Mycological Progress 24: 13. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11557-024-02023-6

Ali M, Ghafoor A, Ghafoor A, Niazi AR, Swenie RA. 2024. Hydnum khanspurense sp. nov. and H. berkeleyanum from Pakistan. Phytotaxa 660: 161–170. https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.660.2.6

Swenie RA, Looney BP, Ke Y-H, Rojas JA, Cubeta MA, Langer GJ, Vilgalys R, Matheny PB. 2024. PacBio high-throughput multi-locus sequencing reveals high genetic diversity in mushroom-forming fungi. Molecular Ecology Resources 24: e13885. https://doi.org/10.1111/1755-0998.13885

Matheny PB, Kudzma LV, Graddy MG, Mardini SM, Noffsinger CR, Swenie RA, Walker NC, Campagna SR, Halling R, Lebeuf R, Kuo M. 2023. A phylogeny for North American Mallocybe (Inocybaceae) and taxonomic revision of eastern North American taxa. Fungal Systematics and Evolution 12: 153–201. https://doi.org/10.3114/fuse.2023.12.09

Wilson AW, Eberhardt U, Nguyen N, Noffsinger CR, Swenie RA, Loucks JL, Perry BA, Herrera M, Osmundson TW, DeLong-Duhon S, Beker HJ, Mueller GM. 2023. Does One Size Fit All? Variations in the DNA Barcode Gaps of Macrofungal Genera. Journal of Fungi 9: 788. https://doi.org/10.3390/jof9080788

Justo A, Hood AW, Swenie RA, Matheny PB. 2023. Hydnum atlanticum, a new species from eastern North America. Fungal Systematics and Evolution 11: 63–70. https://doi.org/10.3114/fuse.2023.11.05