Biology of the Fungi: WWW links and advanced reading

Sites of general mycological interest:

• WWW virtual library mycology
• Tom Volk's Fungi pages, including fungus of the month
• Mykoweb
• Fungi in "The microbial world," (University of Edinburgh)
• Joey Spatafora's Virtual Mycology Class (Oregon State University)

Evolution of fungi and their relatives:

• Tree of life
• University of California Museum of Paleontology:
  • Introduction to Fungi
  • Choanoflagellates,
  • Chromista
• Protist Image Database
  

Articles:

• A very recent review article for those interested in fungal evolution: phylogeny, fossil history and population biology:
  REDECKER (2002): New views on fungal evolution based on DNA markers and the fossil record. Research in Microbiology, 153, 125-130.
• In 1991, the eminent mycologist David Hawksworth estimated that there might be 1.5 million species of fungi although only 70.000 had been described. This review discusses the estimate in the light of new evidence found since then:
  HAWKSWORTH(2001): The magnitude of fungal diversity: the 1.5 million species estimate revisited . Mycol Res 12, 1422
• A brief account of the latest findings on Microsporidia, probable relatives of the true fungi who have an extremely compacted genome:
  KEELING (2001) Parasites go the full monty. Nature, 414, 401-402
• The classic on the relationship of fungi and animals:
  BALDAUF & PALMER (1993): Animals and Fungi are Each Other's Closest Relatives: Congruent Evidence from Multiple Proteins. PNAS 90, 11558-11562.
  

Slime molds:

• Dictyostelium movies
• Neotropical Myxomycete images
• Slime molds in "The Microbial World"

Articles:

• Evolution of slime molds:
  BALDAUF & DOOLITTLE (1997): Origin and evolution of the slime molds (Mycetozoa). PNAS 94: 12007-12012.

The fungal cell:

• Fungal tip growth (an overview article in "The Microbial World")
• Fungal morphogenesis lab at UC Riverside (lots of Spitzenkörpers, videos of growing hyphal tips and a computer program to simulate fungal growth)
• Neurospora movies
• An overview of Hydrophobin research (in French)

Articles:

• Hydrophobins: Wösten, van Wetter, Lugones, van der Mei, Busscher & Wessels (1999) How a fungus escapes the water to grow into the air. Current Biology 9, 85-88.
• A video essay on yeast mitosis: Shaw, Maddox, Skibbens, Yeh, Salmon & Bloom (1998) Nuclear and Spindle Dynamics in Budding Yeast. Molecular Biology of the Cell
  9, 1627­1631.
• Spitzenkörper dynamics from Riverside: Reynaga-Peña, Gierz & Bartnicki-García (1997). Analysis of the role of the Spitzenkörper in fungal morphogenesis by computer simulation of apical branching in Aspergillus niger. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 94:9096-9101.
• A recent article on Spitzenkörpers of Allomyces. Great pictures and videos: McDaniel & Roberson (2001) Microtubules Are Required for Motility and Positioning of Vesicles and Mitochondria in Hyphal Tip Cells of Allomyces macrogynus. Fungal genetics and biology 31, 133-244. +Supplementary material (videos!).
• Function of Woronin bodies: Tenney, Hunt, Sweigard, Pounder, McClain, Bowman & Bowman (2000) hex-1, a Gene Unique to Filamentous Fungi, Encodes the Major Protein of the Woronin Body and Functions as a Plug for Septal Pores Fungal Genetics and Biology, 31, 205-217.
• A brand new article about a new component active in yeast mitosis. More for the specialists: Hemert, Lamers, Klein, Oosterkamp, de Steensma & van Heusden (2002) The Saccharomyces cerevisiae Fin1 protein forms cell cycle-specific filaments between spindle pole bodies. PNAS 99, 5390-5393.

Fungal lifestyles I: Wood decayers and plant pathogens:

• Serpula lacrymans, nightmare of all owners of wooden houses: A comprehensive account of its biology and importance by Tobias Huckfeldt (in German)
• Heterobasidion annosum and other important diseases of trees (in German).
• Armillaria and other wood decayers in "The Microbial World"
• Armillaria "clones" can become huge: Ten years after the "fungus humongous" was discovered. A look back by Tom Volk.
• Rice blast information.
• An online handbook of plant diseases (from Texas)

Fungal lifestyles II: Mycorrhiza

• Two introductions to Mycorrhizas:
  • Mycorrhiza page of CSIRO (Australia)
  • David Sylvia's Webpage
• All kinds of links and images: Mycorrhiza information exchange
• The authority on Arbuscular Mycorrhizas. The site to see spores of AM fungi: INVAM

Articles:

• Mycorrhizas and fungal evolution: An "enhanced perspective" article in Science with lots of WWW links: M. Blackwell (2000) Terrestrial Life--Fungal from the Start?
• Ectomycorrhizal fungi provide underground links among trees ("wood-wide web"):
  • Net transfer of carbon between ectomycorrhizal tree species in the field. Suzanne W. Simard, David A. Perry, Melanie D. Jones, David D. Myrold, Daniel M. Durall, Randy Molina (1997) Nature 388, 579 - 582 (research article)
  • Mycorrhizal fungi: The ties that bind. David Read (1997) Nature 388, 517 - 518 (perspective/commentary)
• Some orchids (and monotropes) are cheating ectomycorrhizal fungi and derive all their nutrients from them: Independent, specialized invasions of ectomycorrhizal mutualism by two nonphotosynthetic orchids D. Lee Taylor and Thomas D. Bruns (1997) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 94 4510-4515.
• Ectomycorrhizal fungi can actively kill arthropods and feed the nitrogen to the trees: Food-web dynamics: Animal nitrogen swap for plant carbon. John N. Klironomos, Miranda M. Hart (2001) Nature 410, 651 - 652.
• Diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi has an influence on the composition of plant communities.
  • Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal diversity Mycorrhizal fungal diversity determines plant biodiversity, ecosystem variability and productivity Marcel G. A. van der Heijden, John N. Klironomos, Margot Ursic, Peter Moutoglis, Ruth Streitwolf-Engel, Thomas Boller, Andres Wiemken, Ian R. Sanders (1998) Nature396, 69 - 72 (research article)
  • Biodiversity: Plants on the web. David Read (1998) Nature396, 22 - 23 (perspective/commentary)
• Agricultural soils are severely depleted in arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal diversity: Ploughing up the wood-wide web? T. Helgason, T. J. Daniell, R. Husband, A. H. Fitter, J. P. W. Young (1998) Nature 394, 431.
• Discovery of a gene that is crucial for the arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis: A phosphate transporter expressed in arbuscule-containing cells in potato Christine Rausch, Pierre Daram, Silvia Brunner, Jan Jansa, Maryse Laloi, Georg Leggewie, Nikolaus Amrhein, Marcel Bucher (2001) Nature 414, 462 - 470.

Fungal lifestyles III: Animal-fungus interactions

• A website about human diseases caused by fungi: doctorfungus.org
• More diseases, also caused by other organisms: Center of Disease Control and Prevention
• Pictures of fungus-insect symbioses in "The Fifth Kingdom"
• About leafcutter ants: Evolutionary Ecology of the Attine Ant-Microbe Mutualism
• Ambrosia beetles as a forest pest

Articles:

• A third symbiont, an Actinomycete, is used by attine ants as a biocontrol agent against a fungal parasite of the fungus gardens: Fungus-growing ants use antibiotic-producing bacteria to control garden parasites. Cameron R. Currie, James A. Scott, Richard C. Summerbell, David Malloch (1999) Nature398, 701 - 704.
• The Evolution of Agriculture in Ants. Ulrich G. Mueller, Stephen A. Rehner, Ted R. Schultz (1998)
  Science 281: 2034-2038.

Sexual reproduction in fungi in general; Oomycota and Chytridiomycota

• Introduction to the Oomycota (UCMP)
• Phytophthora infestans, caused the infamous Great Irish Famine in 1845
• Another species of Phytophthora is the agent of the Sudden Oak Death Syndrome currently rampant on the US West Coast
• Zoosporic fungi online
• Some chytrids are causing mass die-offs of frogs

Zygomycota and Glomeromycota

• Some portraits of Zygomycota
• For the Glomeromycota, see websites in the Mycorrhiza section above

Articles:

• Sex and parasitism are closely connected in some mucoralean fungi. And the parasites even genetically alter the host! J. Wöstemeyer, A. Wöstemeyer, A. Burmester, K. Czempinski (1995) Relationships between sexual processes and parasitic interactions in the host-pathogen system Absidia glauca- Parasitella parasitica. Canadian Journal of Botany 73 , S243-S250.
• Glomeromycota were already present when the first land plants appeared in the Ordovicium. D. Redecker, R. Kodner, L. Graham (2000): Glomalean fungi from the Ordovician. Science 289, 1920-1921. (see press release, or abstract and pdf).

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Ascomycota and Basidiomycota

• Online mycology textbook with great pictures:
  • Ascomycota in "The Fifth Kingdom"
  • Basidiomycota in "The Fifth Kingdom"
• Current outline of Ascomycete taxonomy: Myconet
• The fascinating world of Lichens
• See what grows in our area: Macromycetes from the Baselbiet
• Fungi of California

Articles:

• Up-to-date phylogeny of the Homobasidiomycetes: M. Binder, D. Hibbett (2002): Higher-level phylogenetic relationships of homobasidiomycetes (mushroom-forming fungi) inferred from four rDNA regions. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 22 : 76-90
• Gilled mushrooms, puffballs and other basidiocarp types did not only evolve once but multiple times: David S. Hibbett, Elizabeth M. Pine, Ewald Langer, Gitta Langer, and Michael J. Donoghue (1997) Evolution of gilled mushrooms and puffballs inferred from ribosomal DNA sequences. PNAS 94: 12002-12006.
• Evolution in the Heterobasidiomycetes: M. Weiss, F. Oberwinkler: Phylogenetic relationships in Auriculariales and related groups: Hypotheses derived from nuclear ribosomal DNA sequences. Mycological-Research. 105 (4): 403-415.
• The lichen symbiosis did not only evolve many times independently (Gargas et al. (1995) Science 268, 1492-1495), some Ascomycetes also lost this habit again and switched to other modes of nutrition: Lutzoni, F., Pagel, M., Reeb, V. (2001): Major fungal lineages are derived from lichen symbiotic ancestors. Nature411, 937-940

The importance of fungi in food production

• There are many sites with mushroom recipes, for instance this one: Mykoweb
• More about soy sauce and how it is made

Articles:

• Cultivated Agaricus bisporus (button mushroom) strains replace the indigenous ones in California: Kerrigan RW, Carvalho DB, Horgen PA, Anderson JB (1998) The indigenous coastal Californian population of the mushroom Agaricus bisporus, a cultivated species, may be at risk of extinction.
  Molecular-Ecology 7 (1) 35-45.
• The fungus used to ferment soy sauce, Aspergillus oryzae, is very closely related to Aspergillus flavus, the producer of the carcinogenic aflatoxins: Geiser, David M, Dorner, Joe W, Horn, Bruce W, Taylor, John W (2000) The phylogenetics of mycotoxin and sclerotium production in Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus oryzae. Fungal Genetics and Biology 31 (3): 169-179.

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