Laura Selbman of Italy’s University of Tuscia proposes to sequence nearly 100 species of black fungi in a 3-year effort called STRES (Shed light in The daRk lineagES of the Fungal Tree Of Life (FTOL)). Black fungi are ubiquitous in many environments – the collage shows examples of habitats colonized by these fungi – and extremely tolerant of stresses ranging from UV radiation to heat to toxic metals and organic pollutants.(Collage courtesy of L. Selbmann)