Fifteen new species of Penicillium.

We introduce 15 new species of Penicillium isolated from a diverse range of locations, including Canada, Costa Rica, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Tanzania, USA and the Dry Valleys of Antarctica, from a variety of habitats, including leaf surfaces in tropical rain forests, soil eaten by chimpanzees, infrabuccal pockets of carpenter ants, intestinal contents of caterpillars and soil. The new species are classified in sections Aspergilloides (1), Canescentia (2), Charlesia (1), Exilicaulis (3), Lanata-Divaricata (7) and Stolkia (1). Each is characterised and described using classical morphology, LC-MS based extrolite analyses and multigene phylogenies based on ITS, BenA and CaM. Significant extrolites detected include andrastin, pulvilloric acid, penitrem A and citrinin amongst many others.

New and Interesting Fungi. 6.

Three new genera, six new species, three combinations, six epitypes, and 25 interesting new host and / or geographical records are introduced in this study. New genera: Neoleptodontidium (based on Neoleptodontidium aquaticum), and Nothoramularia (based on Nothoramularia ragnhildianicola). New species: Acremonium aquaticum (from cooling pad water, USA, Cladophialophora laricicola (on dead wood of Larix sp., Netherlands), Cyphellophora neerlandica (on lichen on brick wall, Netherlands), Geonectria muralis (on moss growing on a wall, Netherlands), Harposporium illinoisense (from rockwool, USA), and Neoleptodontidium aquaticum (from hydroponic water, USA). New combinations: Cyphellophora deltoidea (based on Anthopsis deltoidea), Neoleptodontidium aciculare (based on Leptodontidium aciculare), and Nothoramularia ragnhildianicola (based on Ramularia ragnhildianicola). Epitypes: Cephaliophora tropica (from water, USA), Miricatena prunicola (on leaves of Prunus serotina, Netherlands), Nothoramularia ragnhildianicola (on Ragnhildiana ferruginea, parasitic on Artemisia vulgaris, Germany), Phyllosticta multicorniculata (on needles of Abietis balsamea, Canada), Thyronectria caraganae (on twigs of Caragana arborescens, Ukraine), and Trichosphaeria pilosa (on decayed Salix branch, Netherlands). Furthermore, the higher order phylogeny of three genera regarded as incertae sedis is resolved, namely Cephaliophora (Ascodesmidaceae, Pezizales), Miricatena (Helotiales, Leotiomycetes), and Trichosphaeria (Trichosphaeriaceae, Trichosphaeriales), with Trichosphaeriaceae being an older name for Plectosphaerellaceae. Citation: Crous PW, Akulov A, Balashov S, Boers J, Braun U, Castillo J, Delgado MA, Denman S, Erhard A, Gusella G, Jurjevic Z, Kruse J, Malloch DW, Osieck ER, Polizzi G, Schumacher RK, Slootweg E, Starink-Willemse M, van Iperen AL, Verkley GJM, Groenewald JZ (2023). New and Interesting Fungi. 6. Fungal Systematics and Evolution 11: 109-156. doi: 10.3114/fuse.2023.11.09.

The origin of land plants: a matter of mycotrophism.

It is hypothesized that terrestrial plants are the product of an ancient and continuing symbiosis of a semi-aquatic ancestral green alga and an aquatic fungus-an oomycete. The Siluro-Devonian "explosive" colonization of land, and indeed the very evolution of plants, was possible only through such mutualistic partnerships-partnerships that were equipped to cope with the problems of desiccation and starvation associated with terrestrial existence.

Ecological and evolutionary significance of mycorrhizal symbioses in vascular plants (A Review).

MYCORRHIZAE, THE SYMBIOSES BETWEEN FUNGI AND PLANT ROOTS, ARE NEARLY UNIVERSAL IN TERRESTRIAL PLANTS AND CAN BE CLASSIFIED INTO TWO MAJOR TYPES: endomycorrhizae and ectomycorrhizae. About four-fifths of all land plants form endomycorrhizae, whereas several groups of trees and shrubs, notably Pinaceae, some Cupressaceae, Fagaceae, Betulaceae, Salicaceae, Dipterocarpaceae, and most Myrtaceae form ectomycorrhizae. Among legumes, Papilionoideae and Mimosoideae have endomycorrhizae and usually form bacterial nodules. The members of the third subfamily, Caesalpinioideae, rarely form nodules, and one of the included groups, the two large, pantropical, closely related tribes Amherstieae and Detarieae, regularly form ectomycorrhizae. Nodules and ectomycorrhizae may well be alternative means of supplying organic nitrogen to the plants that form them.Those plants having endomycorrhizae usually occur in forests of high species richness, whereas those with ectomycorrhizae usually occur in forests of low species richness. The roots of ectomycorrhizal trees, however, support a large species richness of fungal symbionts, probably amounting to more than 5000 species worldwide, whereas those of endomycorrhizal trees have low fungal species richness, with only about 30 species of fungi known to be involved worldwide. Ectomycorrhizal forests are generally temperate or occur on infertile soils in the tropics. They apparently have expanded in a series of ecologically important events through the course of time from the Middle Cretaceous onward at the expense of endomycorrhizal forests.