Fungi are extremely diverse, second only to the insects inplanet.uwc.ac.za/nisl/Biodiversity/pdf/ScienceSymposiumRossman_pt2.pdfFungi are extremely diverse, second only to the insects

Fungi are extremely diverse, second only to the insects in

number of species.

Based on ratio of fungi:plant of 5-6:1 in a few well-studied

places. Species of fungi estimated to be 1.5 million.

Only 10% are known, thus 90% have yet to be discovered.

Do you believe this?

Newly described species of Tilletia confused with Karnat bunt. Stopped US wheat export worth $5.5 billion.

1.5 million species

Fungal Diversity

Worldwide plant-fungus

database with 600,000+ records

Fungi on Plants and Plant

Products in the United States13,000 species of plant-associated fungi

Number of fungal species doesn’t include fungi

associated with insects.

Beauveria

bassiana

attacks

many kinds

of insects

Entomophthora muscae

Insect fungi

mostly undiscovered

Ascomycetes, Hypocreales –

Cordyceps, Beauveria, Metarhizium

Entomophthorales –

Entomophaga maimagi on gypsy

moth

Laboulbeniomycetes -

outside, specific to body parts

e.g. cockroach antennae

Trichomycetes -

in guts, host specific

Yeasts inside beetles –

hundreds of new species

Fungi are essential for

the growth of most living

plants through

mycorrhizae – fungi

intimately associated

with plant roots.

Many

mushrooms are

the fruiting

bodies of

mycorrhizal

fungi.

Ectomycorrhizae

Another very

common kind of

mycorrhizae are

associated with

herbaceous

plants as for

most crop plants

(if not heavily

fertilized) and in

nature.

Glomalin holds soil together

Arbuscular mycorrhizae with vesicles and arbuscules

Earliest fungi known

from the early Devonian

Rhynie chert.

Associated with the root-

like structures of the first

land plants.

These look like modern

day Glomeromycetes

with parasitic chytrids

(Spizellomyces).

Fossil fungi associated with primitive land plants

in the Rhynie Chert – ca. 400 million years old

Vesicles and arbuscles of extant arbuscular mycorrhizae

Many, many

undescribed species of

arbuscular mycorrhizal

fungi in one deciduous

forest in Japan.

Yamoto, M. & K. Iwase.

2005. Mycoscience 46:

334-342.

Fungi have a very poor fossil

record.

Using molecular clock approach,

estimated to have originated from

600 million to 1.2 billion years ago.

Based on Paleopyrenomycites but

not much else to go on.

Of more recent origin is a

mushroom Coprinites in amber –

only 90 million years old.

From no single place on Earth are ALL the fungi known.

All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI) initiative planned

in Costa Rica to observe and isolate from all substrata

over time.

SAVE IT,

KNOW IT

USE IT!

Dr. Dan Janzen

Many kinds of substrata to be sampled

Fungi associated with living plants and

fungicolous fungi

Direct observation fungi on living plants and fungicolous fungi

fungi on living tree bark

myxomycetes from bark

Indirect observation necrotrophic fungi on living plants

saprotrophic fungi on dead leaf parts and

bark of living plants

lichenized fungi on living plants

isolation of endophytic fungi from living

leaves

isolation of endophytic fungi from living

wood

isolation of fungi associated with roots (non-

mycorrhizal)

isolated of ectomycorrhizal fungi

isolation of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi

isolation of fungi from roots of ericacaeous

plants

ETC.