Diversity and Evolution of Fungi

Dear Colleagues,

Fungi are a distinct, diverse, and ecologically important branch of the tree of life, in which these hardworking organisms play a vital role in ecosystems as diverse as soil, leaves, rocks, and pelagic zones of the ocean. Distinguished from plants by their heterotrophic nature, and distinct from animals by their external rather than internal digestion, fungi diverged from their sister kingdom the animals ∼1.3 billion years ago. The hidden and microscopic nature of many fungi also means that their diversity is undersampled, and perhaps less than 5% of the estimated two to four million species have been formally described. Fungal genomes are easy to obtain, and fungi have served as models for genome evolution and the reconstruction of phylogenetic relationships using genome-scale data, in which groundbreaking comparative genomic studies that take advantage of these features have already been published.  These pioneering studies are just the prelude to the period that is upon us now.

Despite the early embrace of molecular systematics by mycologists, both the discovery and classification of fungi are still in great flux, particularly among the more basal branches of the tree, whose true diversity is only now coming to light from genomic analyses and environmental DNA surveys. This Special Issue aims to bring together a collection of papers focusing on the biodiversity, molecular systematics, and taxonomy of fungi worldwide.

Dr. Chang-Lin Zhao
Dr. Zai-Wei Ge
Guest Editors

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