How, not if, is the question mycologists should be asking about DNA-based typification.

Fungal metabarcoding of substrates such as soil, wood, and water is uncovering an unprecedented number of fungal species that do not seem to produce tangible morphological structures and that defy our best attempts at cultivation, thus falling outside the scope of the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants. The present study uses the new, ninth release of the species hypotheses of the UNITE database to show that species discovery through environmental sequencing vastly outpaces traditional, Sanger sequencing-based efforts in a strongly increasing trend over the last five years. Our findings challenge the present stance of some in the mycological community - that the current situation is satisfactory and that no change is needed to "the code" - and suggest that we should be discussing not whether to allow DNA-based descriptions (typifications) of species and by extension higher ranks of fungi, but what the precise requirements for such DNA-based typifications should be. We submit a tentative list of such criteria for further discussion. The present authors hope for a revitalized and deepened discussion on DNA-based typification, because to us it seems harmful and counter-productive to intentionally deny the overwhelming majority of extant fungi a formal standing under the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants.

The curse of the uncultured fungus.

The international DNA sequence databases abound in fungal sequences not annotated beyond the kingdom level, typically bearing names such as "uncultured fungus". These sequences beget low-resolution mycological results and invite further deposition of similarly poorly annotated entries. What do these sequences represent? This study uses a 767,918-sequence corpus of public full-length fungal ITS sequences to estimate what proportion of the 95,055 "uncultured fungus" sequences that represent truly unidentifiable fungal taxa - and what proportion of them that would have been straightforward to annotate to some more meaningful taxonomic level at the time of sequence deposition. Our results suggest that more than 70% of these sequences would have been trivial to identify to at least the order/family level at the time of sequence deposition, hinting that factors other than poor availability of relevant reference sequences explain the low-resolution names. We speculate that researchers' perceived lack of time and lack of insight into the ramifications of this problem are the main explanations for the low-resolution names. We were surprised to find that more than a fifth of these sequences seem to have been deposited by mycologists rather than researchers unfamiliar with the consequences of poorly annotated fungal sequences in molecular repositories. The proportion of these needlessly poorly annotated sequences does not decline over time, suggesting that this problem must not be left unchecked.

When mycologists describe new species, not all relevant information is provided (clearly enough).

Taxonomic mycology struggles with what seems to be a perpetual shortage of resources. Logically, fungal taxonomists should therefore leverage every opportunity to highlight and visualize the importance of taxonomic work, the usefulness of taxonomic data far beyond taxonomy, and the integrative and collaborative nature of modern taxonomy at large. Is mycology really doing that, though? In this study, we went through ten years' worth (2009-2018) of species descriptions of extant fungal taxa - 1,097 studies describing at most ten new species - in five major mycological journals plus one plant journal. We estimated the frequency at which a range of key words, illustrations, and concepts related to ecology, geography, taxonomy, molecular data, and data availability were provided with the descriptions. We also considered a range of science-demographical aspects such as gender bias and the rejuvenation of taxonomy and taxonomists as well as public availability of the results. Our results show that the target audience of fungal species descriptions appears to be other fungal taxonomists, because many aspects of the new species were presented only implicitly, if at all. Although many of the parameters we estimated show a gradual, and in some cases marked, change for the better over time, they still paint a somewhat bleak picture of mycological taxonomy as a male-dominated field where the wants and needs of an extended target audience are often not understood or even considered. This study hopes to leave a mark on the way fungal species are described by putting the focus on ways in which fungal taxonomy can better anticipate the end users of species descriptions - be they mycologists, other researchers, the public at large, or even algorithms. In the end, fungal taxonomy, too, is likely to benefit from such measures.

Antibacterial effects of zinc oxide nanorod surfaces.

Antibacterial coating approaches are being investigated to modify implants to reduce bacterial adhesion and viability in order to reduce implant-associated infection. Nanostructured materials possess unique surface properties, and nanotopographic surfaces have been reported to modulate bacterial adhesion. Zinc oxide (ZnO) films presenting well-controlled nanorod surface structures have recently been developed. To assess the efficacy of ZnO nanorod surfaces as an anti-bacterial coating, we evaluated bacterial adhesion and viability, compared to sputtered ZnO substrates (a relatively flat control) and glass substrates (as a reference). Common implant-associated pathogens, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus epidermidis were investigated. The number of adherent P. aeruginosa on ZnO nanorod surfaces was found to be reduced compared to glass and sputtered ZnO, while the adherent number of S. epidermidis on the ZnO nanorods was equivalent to glass. Regarding bacteria viability, the ZnO nanorod and sputtered ZnO surfaces demonstrated a modest, but significant bactericidal effect on adherent P. aeruginosa, killing 2.5-fold and 1.7-fold more over the number of dead P. aeruginosa on glass, respectively. A greater bactericidal effect of ZnO substrates on S. epidermidis was found, with sputtered ZnO and ZnO nanorod substrates killing -20-fold and 30-fold more over the number of dead S. epidermidis on glass, respectively. These data support the further investigation and optimization of ZnO nanorod coatings with potential for bacterial adhesion resistance and bactericidal properties.