A Few Special Dogs Just Discovered 2 New Truffle Species in the US

Who's a good boy? Apparently, the doggies working for Michigan State University (MSU) and the University of Florida are some of the best furball good boys and girls out there.

On Thursday, researchers from MSU shared with Food & Wine that they, along with a few special truffle dogs and citizen scientists, have discovered two new species of truffles. The first is the Tuber canirevelatum, which means the "dog-found" truffle. It was named in honor of truffle dog Monza, who discovered it with her trainer, Lois Martin. The other is the Tuber cumberlandense, named for the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee, where Margaret Townsend and her truffle dog, Luca, found it.

According to the team, Martin realized she had something new when she found T. canirevelatum, and it did not look or smell like anything known to grow in North America. So, Martin mailed it to Gregory Bonito, associate professor in the Department of Plant, Soil, and Microbial Sciences at the MSU College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Bonito and his undergraduate research student, Alassane Sow, who is also the lead author of the study, used DNA analyses to identify the two truffles and to place them in "the tree of life."

Related: Everything You Need to Know About Truffles

“Receiving these samples was very exciting, especially because they looked very similar to the well-known edible European truffles Tuber macrosporum and Tuber aestivum,” Sow said in a statement. “We hope that by describing both of these species, there will be increased interest in cultivating North American truffles. Our analyses show that each has aromatic compounds found in some of the most valuable truffle species.”

According to Bonito, the T. cumberlandense has actually been harvested and sold for years under different names. However, their analysis found that it is indeed distinct and a "previously undescribed species native to North America." And now, Bonito added, the Marker's Mark distillery is even attempting to cultivate this U.S. truffle in Kentucky.

“This particular species enjoys a symbiotic relationship with their host, white oaks, growing from their roots and providing nutrition to the trees,” Bonito explained. “Maker’s Mark is interested in cultivating T. cumberlandense because they store their whiskey in white oak barrels. They will be reforesting their land in Kentucky with white oaks for the barrels and hope one day to harvest truffles as well; perhaps they will even create truffle-infused whiskey.”

Importantly, Bonito noted that while more people are trying to grow truffles, the real secret is ensuring more truffle dogs are trained to find them.

“If you have $20,000 of truffles growing underground, you need to find them before they perish, so the dogs are very important,” Bonito added. “Our research reinforces the importance of using trained truffle dogs in tuber research and truffle farming. We suspect many native tuber species remain to be discovered and described. This task will be enhanced through the continued collaboration between mycologists — scientists who study fungi — the public, and trained truffle dogs.”

Now, somebody go give these doggies a cookie. They've earned it. 

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