Steven Ahrendt

Data Scientist

DOE Joint Genome Institute

Science Programs

Secondary Affiliation: Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology

Biosystems Data Science

Building: 91, Room 350G3
Mail Stop: 91R0183
sahrendt0@lbl.gov

Research Interests

Annotation of fungal genomes to better understand their roles in interactions with e.g. plants, algae, and other fungi
Comparative phylogenomics to help resolve the Fungal Tree of Life, particularly untangling the lesser studied basal fungal clades
Elucidation of the underlying biological mechanisms of efficient biomass degradation by fungi

Selected Publications

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JGI Researchers Trace the Evolution of Shiitake Mushrooms

February 28, 2023

These fungi are part of the genus Lentinula, which have evolved to decompose hardwoods on every continent besides Europe and Antarctica. Lentinula mushrooms are white rot fungi, belonging to an elite group of decomposers that can break down all of wood’s components — cellulose, hemicellulose, and the toughest molecule, lignin. Understanding Lentinula genomes and their evolution could provide strategies for converting plant waste into sugars for biofuel production.

JGI Develops Single-Cell Pipeline for Fungal Diversity

October 17, 2018

More than a million species of fungi are estimated to live on this planet, but most of that diversity remains unknown because the fungi have avoided detection and have not been cultured for study in laboratories. A team led by researchers at the Joint Genome Institute has developed a pipeline to generate genomes from single cells of uncultivated fungi. The approach was tested on several uncultivated fungal species representing the earliest evolutionary branches in the fungal genealogy that provide a repertoire of important and valuable gene products.

Research Interests

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