• Ph.D., Botany, University of California, Berkeley, 1989
• B.S., Biological Sciences, Cornell University, 1981

Teaching

• BSC 1010C General Biology I (Fall and Spring)
  BOT 3015C Lives of Plants and Algae (Spring)

Research

I'm a plant biologist broadly trained in the morphology, development and diversity of plants, fungi and algae. My research combines these interests by focusing on the structure, growth and development of lichens, which are plant-like symbiotic composites formed by specialized fungi in collaboration with specific algae.

Selected Publications

• Sanders WB. 2023. The disadvantages of current proposals to redefine lichens. New Phytologist: http://doi.org/10.1111/nph.19321
  
• Sanders WB. 2023. Is lichen symbiont mutualism a myth? BioScience 73: 623-634.
• Sanders WB, De Carolis R, Ertz D, de los Ríos A, Muggia L. 2023. Independent, structurally distinct transitions to microfruticose growth in the crustose genus Porina (Ostropales, Lecanoromycetes): new isidioid species from southwestern Florida. Lichenologist 55: 347–365.
• Sanders WB, de los Ríos A. 2023. Structure of foliicolous lichen thalli formed by some common lecanoralean taxa in subtropical leaf communities. Bryologist 126: 35-44.
• Sanders WB. 2022. Photoaerogens clarified. Nature Plants (28 July 2022) doi.org/10.1038/s41477-022-01219-6.
• Masumoto H, Sanders WB. 2022. The lichen cyanobiont genus Rhizonema shows diverse patterns of branching, both false and true. Journal of Phycology 58: 612-625.
• Sanders WB. 2022. The photoaerogens: algae and plants reunited conceptually. American Journal of Botany 109: 363-365.
• Sanders WB, Brisky BJ [FGCU undergraduate]. 2022. Airborne ascospore discharge with co-dispersal of attached epihymenial algae in some foliicolous lichens. American Journal of Botany 109: 58-66.
• Sanders WB, Masumoto H. 2021. Lichen algae: the photosynthetic partners in lichen symbioses. Lichenologist 53: 347-393.
• Sanders WB, Llop E. 2020. Gyalectidium minus Sérus., new to oceanic western Europe in the first reported foliicolous lichen community of continental Portugal. Lichenologist 52: 247-250.
• Sanders WB, de los Ríos A. 2019. Cell wall dynamics under conditions of diffuse growth in the thick-walled cortical tissue (prosoplectenchyma) of Ramalina usnea. Lichenologist 51: 269-280.
• Sanders WB, de los Ríos A. 2019. The cellular cortex in Collemataceae (lichenized Ascomycota) participates in thallus growth and morphogenesis via parenchymatous cell divisions. Mycologia 111: 206-216.
• Sanders WB, de los Ríos A. 2018. Structural evidence of diffuse growth and parenchymatous cell division in the cortex of the umbilicate lichen Lasallia pustulata. Lichenologist 50: 583-590.
• Sanders WB, de los Ríos A. 2017. Parenchymatous cell division characterizes the fungal cortex of some common foliose lichens. American Journal of Botany 104: 207-217.
• Sanders WB, Pérez-Ortega S, NelsenMP, Lücking R., de los Ríos A. 2016. Heveochlorella (Trebouxiophyceae):A little-known genus of unicellular green algae outside the Trebouxiales emerges unexpectedly as a major clade of lichen photobionts in foliicolous communities. Journal of Phycology 52: 840-853 (DOI: 10.1111/jpy.12446).
• Sanders WB, de los Ríos A. 2016. Structure of foliicolous thalli of the Gomphillaceae in a southwestern Florida lichen community. Lichenologist 48: 293-303.
• SandersWB, Tokamov SA, Papkov­, GI. 2016. The orientation of foliicolous lichen campylidia with respect to water runoff and its significance for propagule dispersal. American Journal of Botany 103(4): 596-602.
• Sanders WB, de los Ríos A. 2015. Structure and in situ development of the microlichen Gyalectidium paolae (Gomphillaceae, Ascomycota), an overlooked colonist on palm leaves in southwest Florida. American Journal of Botany 102 (9): 1403-1412.
• SandersWB, Lücking R. 2015. Three new species of foliicolous Gomphillaceae (lichen-forming ascomycetes) from southern Florida. Bryologist: 170-177.
• Sanders WB, Tokamov SA [FGCU undergraduate]. 2015. Diffuse growth in the fruticose beard lichen Ramalina usnea. The Lichenologist 47: 51-58.
• Sanders WB. 2014. Complete life cycle of the lichen fungus Calopadia puiggarii (Pilocarpaceae, Ascomycetes) documented in situ: propagule dispersal, establishment of symbiosis, thallus development, and formation of sexual and asexual reproductive structures. American Journal of Botany 101: 1836-1848.
• Sanders WB, de los Ríos A. 2012. Development of thallus axes in Usnea longissima, a fruticose lichen showing diffuse growth. American Journal of Botany 99: 998-1009.
• Lücking R. Seavey F, Common RS, Beeching SQ, Breuss O, Buck WR, Crane L, Hodges M, Hodkinson BP, Lay E, Lendemer JC, McMullin RT, Mercado-Díaz J, Nelsen MP, Rivas Plata E, Safranek W, Sanders WB, Schaefer HP, Seavey J. 2011. The lichens of Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park, Florida: Proceedings from the 18th Tuckerman Workshop. Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History 49: 127-186.
• Sanders WB. 2006. A feeling for the superorganism: expression of plant form in the lichen thallus. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 150: 89-99.
• Sanders WB, Moe RL, Ascaso C. 2005. Ultrastructural study of the brown alga Petroderma maculiforme (Phaeophyta) in the free-living state and in lichen symbiosis with the intertidal marine fungus Verrucaria tavaresiae (Ascomycota). European Journal of Phycology 40: 353-361.
• Sanders WB. 2005. Investigating lichen life cycles using transparent substrates placed in situ. Lichenologist 37: 383-395.
• Sanders WB, Moe RL, Ascaso C. 2004. The intertidal marine lichen formed by the pyrenomycete fungus Verrucaria tavaresiae R.L. Moe (Ascomycotina) and the brown alga Petroderma maculiforme (Wollny) Kuckuck (Phaeophyceae): thallus organization and symbiont interaction. American Journal of Botany 91: 511-522.
• Sanders WB. 2002. In situ development of the foliicolous lichen Phyllophiale (Trichotheliaceae) from propagule germination to propagule production. American Journal of Botany 89: 1741-1746.
• Sanders WB, Lücking R. 2002. Reproductive strategies, relichenization, and thallus development observed in situ in leaf-dwelling lichen communities. New Phytologist 155: 425-435.
• Sanders WB. 2001. Lichens: interface between mycology and plant morphology. Bioscience 51: 1025-1035.