Seena Sahadevan, PhD

Long overlooked in science, fungi have recently been recognized as a fascinating and extraordinarily important group of organisms that play key roles in ecosystems. This in-depth study at 19 locations (based on Illumina Miseq sequencing), stretching over a 113° latitudinal gradient on five continents, challenges not only currently emerging views on microbial biodiversity, but also the universality of species distribution patterns across the globe that have been derived primarily from studies on plants and animals.