Introduction

Fungicolous fungi

Fungicolous fungi are a widespread group of organisms that belongs to many ecological categories found in both, terrestrial and aquatic habitats (Jeffries 1995, Gams et al. 2004, Sun et al. 2019a). They are consistently having associations between different lineages across the fungal kingdom as mycoparasites, saprotrophs or neutrals (Gams et al. 2004, Põldmaa 2011, Lin et al. 2016, Sun et al. 2019a). Krings et al (2011) reported the first convincing fossil evidence for mycoparasitism in sporocarps.

There are many important aspects of fungicolous fungi. They detoxify the substrates which are not otherwise accessible for decomposition while playing an important role in ecosystems for nutrient recycling (Gams et al. 2004, Maurice et al. 2021). Provide clues for screening potential biocontrol agents applicable against destructive fungal plant pathogens, serve as resources for discovering antifungal and anticancer drugs in the biomedicine industry (Vinale et al. 2008, Mukherjee et al. 2013). Some fungicolous fungi (Naematelia aurantialba and Tremella spp.) themselves are food sources whereas, the lobster mushrooms formed after the infection of Hypomyces lactifluorum on mushrooms such as Lactifluus piperatu (milk-caps) and Russula brevipes (brittlegills) are consumed as delicious food (Bandoni and Zang 1990, Bandoni and Boekhout 2011, Laperriere et al. 2018). Some fungicolous species are pathogenic on mushrooms and they cause diseases on cultivable mushrooms resulting quality and quantity losses which leads to economic losses in commercial mushroom cultivation and also indirectly affect food security (Sun et al. 2019b).

The fungicolous fungi webpage

Conservation of scientific records and knowledge dissemination on fungal diversity morphology and taxonomy is a valuable process for mycology and other fields of biological studies as well (Lange 2010). Therefore, the development of a database to gather up all the scattered knowledge on fungicolous fungi would be a strong foundation to identify the future perspectives and research gaps in mycology. This web page (https://fungicolousfungi.org/), mainly aims to provide an up-to-date outline and all relevant information on fungicolous fungi. This is a user-friendly, freely accessible interface dedicated to gather all the scattered published knowledge on ecology, distribution, host range, phylogeny, taxonomy and the industrial relevance of fungicolous fungi.

 

References

Bandoni RJ, Boekhout T. (2011). Tremella Persoon (1794). In The Yeasts (pp. 1567-1590). Elsevier.

Bandoni RJ, Zang M. (1990). On an undescribed Tremella from China. Mycologia, 82(2), 270-273.

Gams W, Diederich, P, Põldmaa, K. (2004). Fungicolous fungi. Biodiversity of fungi: Inventory and monitoring methods, 343-392.

Jeffries P. (1995). Biology and ecology of mycoparasitism. Canadian journal of botany, 73(S1), 1284-1290.

Krings M, Dotzler N, Taylor TN. (2011). Mycoparasitism in Dubiocarpon, a fungal sporocarp from the Carboniferous. Neues Jahrbuch fur Geologie und Palaontologie-Abhandlungen, 262(2), 241.

Lange L. (2010). The importance of fungi for a more sustainable future on our planet. Fungal Biology Reviews, 24(3-4), 90-92.

Laperriere G, Desgagné-Penix I, Germain H. (2018). DNA distribution pattern and metabolite profile of wild edible lobster mushroom (Hypomyces lactifluorum/Russula brevipes). Genome, 61(5), 329-336.

Lin WR, Gu TY, Wang PH. 2016. Fungicolous xylariaceous fungi in coralloid basidiomata. Fungal Ecology, 21, pp.43-49.

Maurice S, Arnault G, Nordén J, Botnen SS, Miettinen O, Kauserud, H. (2021). Fungal sporocarps house diverse and host-specific communities of fungicolous fungi. The ISME journal, 15(5), 1445-1457.

Mukherjee PK, Horwitz BA, Herrera-Estrella A, Schmoll M, Kenerley CM. (2013). Trichoderma research in the genome era. Annual review of phytopathology, 51, 105-129.

Põldmaa K. (2011). Tropical species of Cladobotryum and Hypomyces producing red pigments. Studies in Mycology, 68, 1-34.

Sun JZ, Liu XZ, Jeewon R, Li YL, Lin CG, Tian Q, Zhao Q, Xiao XP, Hyde KD, Nilthong, S. (2019b). Fifteen fungicolous Ascomycetes on edible and medicinal mushrooms in China and Thailand. Asian Journal of Mycology, 2(1), 129-169.

Sun JZ, Liu XZ, McKenzie EH, Jeewon R, Liu JKJ, Zhang XL, Zhao Q, Hyde KD. (2019a). Fungicolous fungi: terminology, diversity, distribution, evolution, and species checklist. Fungal Diversity, 95(1), 337-430.

Vinale F, Sivasithamparam K, Ghisalberti EL, Marra R, Woo SL, Lorito M. (2008). Trichoderma plant pathogen interactions. Soil biology and Biochemistry, 40(1), 1-10.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recent News

News

Recent Genus

Trichoderma
Sporothrix
Pleurocordyceps

Recent Species

Aspergillus quadrilineatus
Trichoderma atrobrunneum
Sporothrix ganodermatis