Steven Ahrendt
Data Scientist
Divisions
- Science Programs
Secondary Affiliation:
Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology
- Biosystems Data Science
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
Recent Publications
Related News
Researchers Map Fungal Mitochondrial Genomes Using Public Data
By leveraging new tools and large-scale data mining, JGI researchers nearly tripled the available fungal mitochondrial genome data, unlocking new potential for AI-driven studies of energy metabolism.
JGI Researchers Trace the Evolution of Shiitake Mushrooms
By complete sequencing of 24 new mushroom genomes, and assembling genomes from 60 existing sequences, this work expands the family tree for Lentinula. Within those samples, this study also tracks the enzymes these fungi use to break down wood, and compares genetic diversity between cultivated and wild shiitake populations.
JGI Develops Single-Cell Pipeline for Fungal Diversity
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.
