The spine fungi, which grow on the trunks, branches and stumps of trees, produce strange but beautiful mushrooms. They belong to a genus called Hericium, and there are a number of species throughout the northern hemisphere. Amongst the best known are the ‘spine face’ (H. cirrhatum (Pers.: Fr.) Nikol.) which is branched with several, shell-shaped caps, and the ‘coral spine fungus’ (H. coralloides (Scop.: Fr.) Pers.) which lacks a cap but is highly branched and covered with small spines, up to 10 mm long. Although all the spine fungi are edible and generally delicious, most attention has been given to that known in China as the ‘monkey head’ (H. erinaceum Bull.: Pers.).

Based on a mathematical model, using numerical analyses it can be concluded that the tender structure of the common stinkhorn, Phallus impudicus, growing out of hard asphalt road is capable of producing the very powerful force of 1.33 kN/m2, which means that three of these mushrooms can lift approximately 400 kg.

The extraradical mycelium of ectomycorrhizas is comprised of a network of hyphae that may initiate rhizomorphs, sclerotia and sexual reproductive structures. The development of these structures requires photosynthates produced by host trees. In this study, the initiation and early development of Laccaria bicolor (Maire) Orton fruitbodies (basidiocarps) were studied. Seedlings of Pinus resinosa Ait. and Pinus sylvestris L. were colonized by L. bicolor, a broad host epigeous ectomycorrhizal basidiomycetous fungal species, in growth pouches. Ectomycorrhizas with an extensive extraradical mycelium formed on short roots within 7-12 days after fungal inoculum was introduced. Numerous sites of hyphal aggregation, many of which subsequently developed into basidiocarp primordia, were initiated in the extraradical mycelium. Initial changes in aggregating hyphae included swelling and branching followed by growth of hyphae perpendicular to the paper wick in growth pouches. A stipe and a pileus primordium developed but none of these basidiocarp primordia matured. Distinct regions were evident in the stipe and pileus when sections were stained by various methods. Loose hyphae at the apex and periphery of the pileus were separated by mucilage. In Petri dishes with vermiculite as the substrate, basidiocarps of Laccaria laccata formed in ectomycorrhizal associations with Pinus sylvestris, developed a mature pileus with an hymenium and mature basidiospores.

There has been interest in using environmental screening procedures for enhancing the metabolomic production profiles by fungi which are of pharmaceutical interest. This study examined two ecologically distinct species, Epicoccum nigrum and Sarophorum palmicola, in solid substrate fermentation systems over a range of water availability conditions (water activity, aW). Total secondary metabolite profiles were obtained by HPLC + diode array detection after 14 days incubation on cereal-based substrates in relation to four aW treatments. Temporal studies (24 d, E. nigrum and 18 d, S. palmicola) showed that metabolite production profiles varied markedly between the two fungi. For E. nigrum, metabolite production generally increased with reduction in aW, and was optimal in the range 0.99 - 0.97. In contrast to this, for S. palmicola, metabolite production was restricted to the highest aW level used, 0.998, and declined to zero at 0.99 aW. Statistical analysis revealed that time, aW and their interactions were significant in all cases (p<0.001). The potential for using ecophysiological stresses for enhancing natural product discovery is discussed.

The study of the evolutionary history of organisms by tracing them to common ancestors is known as phylogenetics. Over the last 20 years or so, the increasingly widespread availability of molecular data has seen the blossoming of methodologies for converting DNA information to evolutionary trees and networks. This article will attempt to give an overview of some of the methods that are available, covering data types, considerations for their use, and methods by which evolutionary ancestry can be reconstructed. Where relevant, the text will include examples of the use of these methodologies for the obligately biotrophic plasmodiophorids.

Three species of Lentinus from Cameroon, L. sajor-caju (Fr.) Fr., L. squarrosulus Mont. and L. velutinus Fr. Were investigated in laboratory culture. L. velutinus produced xylarioid outgrowths in both monosperm and polysperm cultures, but these structures were observed only to a lesser extent in polysperm cultures of L. squarrosulus, and those of L. sajor-caju, as well as their respective monosperm cultures, remained sterile. Extracellular oxidase tests revealed all three species to be white-rot fungi.

Since most mycologists work on ascomycetes or basidiomycetes it is easy to forget chytridiomycetes when thinking about fungi, let alone anaerobic chytridiomycetes. So it was hardly surprising that more than one hundred years ago scientists did not recognise the motile spores in a rumen sample as being fungi. Since it was general knowledge that the rumen was infested with bacteria and ciliates the flagellated cells seen by Liebetanz and Braune (1913; 1910) were considered to be flagellates (see Fig 1). About 50 years later there are some careful remarks in the literature about this Callimastix species by Vavra and Joyon (1966) but they do not explicitly mention that it might be a fungus. It took until the seventies before Colin Orpin finally dared to suggest that those strange anaerobic flagellates that live in the rumen might actually be fungi (Munn et al., 1981; Orpin, 1975; 1977). That scientific dogmas are enormous barriers is obvious from the fact that even the great rumen microbiologist Robert Hungate did not believe that fungi could be anaerobic. The late Rudolf Prins told me that in the sixties, when he and Hungate discovered 'fluffy' colonies in anoxic tubes, they always threw them away because oxygen must have seeped in!

Careful examinations by Heath (1983; 1988b) and Barr (1980; 1988) morphologically linked the anaerobic chytrids to the fungi. Modern phylogenetic analyses have confirmed these findings and reveal the chytrid fungi to be the earliest fungal branch (Bowman et al., 1992; Doré and Stahl, 1991; Li and Heath, 1992; Van der Auwera and De Wachter, 1996).

The new genus Celatogloea is proposed to accommodate a monosterigmate, heterobasidiomycetous, intrahymenial parasite of Corticium roseum, previously not distinguished from its host. The new combination Celatogloea simplicibasidium is proposed, based on Laeticorticium simplicibasidium.

The ‘Poor Man's Truffle’, ‘Truffles of the Desert’ or ‘Fagaa’ were much appreciated in earlier times, particularly by the Ancient Greeks and Romans, who imported them, largely from Carthage and Libya. They appear prominently in the writings of Theophrastus, Dioscorides and Pliny, using various names, such as hydnum, miso or misy. All fungal fruitbodies that grow underground are loosely termed ‘truffles’. The desert truffles, however, are only distantly related to the more highly prized true truffles (Tuber species), especially of southern Europe. Two genera are involved, the larger Terfezia Tul. & C. Tul., with verrucose spores, and Tirmania Chatin, with smooth spores. They are white to yellowish brown truffles, rather soft and fleshy, and can grow to quite a large size, on average around 3–10 cm across, and may weigh from 60–150 gm, although the largest recorded fruitbody (up to 1,000 gm) was produced by Tirmania nivea Desfontaines.

Individual fungal cells within genetically-uniform populations can exhibit striking phenotypic variability. This phenotypic heterogeneity has been proposed recently to promote the fitness of fungal populations, independently of fitness contributions arising from genetic diversity. Consequently, several major recent studies have been focused on unravelling the physiological and molecular bases for heterogeneity. This article provides an overview of the current state of play in this emerging field, with a focus on heterogeneity in the single-cell yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and on the novel methodologies being developed to study heterogeneity.

Myxotrichum chartarum, with its striking gymnothecia, should be better known. It is described and illustrated from cardboard in an unusual context and from culture.

Entomophthoralean fungi cause many of the epizootics in the world's arthropod populations. Most are obligate insect or mite pathogens and thus are not readily cultured (Pel et al, 2001). In contrast, almost all the common Conidiobolus and Basidiobolus species, widespread in litter and soils of the temperate regions, grow on simple media. Easily observed under the microscope, these necrotrophs or specialised saprotrophs of arthropods exemplify many aspects of entomophthoralean biology. They are strongly chitinolytic, proteolytic and lipolytic and they can colonise arthropod cadavers. The violent discharge of conidia so characteristic of entomophthoralean fungi is easily observed and studied in Conidiobolus spp. (Ingold, 1971). This ‘trick’ of shooting off conidia, presumably essential for contacting a passing animal as potential vector and eventual substrate, is also extraordinarily useful to a mycologist for experimentally manipulating these fungi. It allows escape from most other co-occurring microbiota, showering of experimental target arthropods (living and dead) and collection of successive generations of repetitional conidia (Waters & Callaghan, 1999). This last feature allows study of the intriguing alternatives to globose conidia. Such alternatives include, for a few species, capillioconidia able to adhere to nearby arthropods, (cf B. ranarum, Weber & Webster, 1998) and for some, actively discharged elongate conidia (ADEC). Most characteristically, in about 11 species, microconidia can form and discharge from the parent spore (Webster, 1980). These alternative conidial forms are easily missed and may form only from later generations of repetitional conidium development on non-nutritive agar media; particularly when water activity (aw) is slightly lowered by inclusion of sorbitol or glycerol (see Appendix).

Recent laboratory experiments challenge the long-held view that Candida albicans is asexual and suggest that sexual recombination could occur outside the laboratory and be part of the reproductive strategy of the species. Population genetics studies, however, find little evidence, among clinical isolates, of the recombinant lineages the sexual cycle should generate. A possible explanation of these results is that the progeny of sexual recombination cannot compete with asexually propagating lineages, challenging the widely-held idea that sexual recombination is superior to asexual propagation.

Over the past decade the use of molecular techniques has provided new ways to study old questions about how ectomycorrhizal fungi interact with each other and their environment. In their simplest form, these methods enable researchers to identify vegetative stages of fungi that would be difficult, slow, or impossible to identify by morphological or culture-based methods. This has resulted in quantitative views of complex fungal communities, which in turn have revealed new and unexpected patterns in community structure. In addition, molecular methods have been used to identify individual genotypes of fungi. This information has provided insights into the way that particular species of ectomycorrhizal fungi spread in nature. In this article we will mention the basic techniques and briefly discuss some of the findings that have resulted. Advances in this field have recently been comprehensively reviewed for scientific audiences, and we refer readers that have a more technical interest or a need to access the current literature to these reviews (Dahlberg, 2001; Horton & Bruns, 2001).

Name of fungi: Aphanoascus, Arthroderma, Auxarthron, Ctenomyces, Gymnoascus (Ascomycota: Onygenales)

Introduction: features of interest

Members of the order Onygenales produce asci within gymnothecia, which consist of a mesh of rigid interlinked hyphae. Highly characteristic appendages are often present; they may be straight or curved and branched or unbranched, and they are an important character for identification of species and genera (Currah, 1985). Despite the striking appearance of the gymnothecial appendages, their ecological role is poorly understood at present. Together with the rigid hyphae of the gymnothecium, they may protect the asci from attack by mites (Summerbell, 2000), and they may also aid dispersal by attaching the gymnothecium to the fur of small mammals. Many Onygenales producing appendages are found in the burrows of animals and feed on their hair (keratin).

The myco-heterotrophs comprise over 400 achlorophyllous plant species in 87 genera that are parasitic upon fungi, and exploit them as their principle source of carbon. In addition, there are estimated to be over 30,000 species, comprising approximately 10% of the plant kingdom, that depend upon myco-heterotrophy for establishment from dust seeds or spores. These initially myco-heterotrophic plants require fungal-carbon during their critical early establishment phases but go on to produce green shoots on emerging into light from soil or as epiphytes on other plants. This extraordinary mode of nutrition, first recognised more than a century ago, is hidden in the initially myco-heterotrophic plants and in the fully achlorophyllous species continues to be misrepresented by many botanists as a form of ‘saprophytism’. As a consequence, the parasitic dependence of these plants upon fungi is not widely appreciated. This is the only group of parasitic plants for which, in over 90% of cases, the host species (which are fungi) providing their carbon and nutrients remain unidentified. This article reviews some of the exciting recent progress made in understanding the nature and properties of fungi parasitized by plants, and in the use of distinctive carbon and nitrogen isotope ‘signatures’ of myco-heterotrophs to quantify fungal dependence in plants with green shoots that remain partially myco-heterotrophic in adulthood.

Recently, it was demonstrated that Candida albicans contains mating type genes. Since that discovery, it has been demonstrated that the majority of strains contain both a and "[agr ]" a genes, that a minority are homozygous for a or "[agr ]" and can undergo fusion, and that the cytological stages of fusion and zygote development are similar to the stages of mating in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. However, it has recently been demonstrated that in order to mate, homozygous a and homozygous "[agr ]" cells must undergo phenotypic switching from the white to opaque phase, adding a developmental step to mating that might be related to pathogenesis.

Free-living nematodes, commonly known as eelworms, eat bacteria in the soil and may succumb to infection by delicate endoparasitic fungi. In the wild these fungi are host-dependent and infect nematodes with small unicellular spores that either lodge inside the nematode following ingestion, or adhere to the nematode cuticle. Some endoparasites, such as Drechmeria coniospora and Harposporium leptospira, are readily isolated, ubiquitous species, infecting common soil nematodes in a variety of substrates. Others, like the elusive Plesiospora globosa, are seldom seen because they are host-specific for rarer species of nematode occurring in specific habitats.

Although fungi are fundamentally important in our every day lives, the Kingdom is largely ignored by the National Curriculum in the United Kingdom. Consequently, children are missing out on being taught about a crucially important group of organisms. This paper aims to show the deficiencies in the curriculum specifications in UK primary and secondary schools, and describes a range of British Mycological Society learning resources designed to remedy the situation. These ready-made (and classroom-tested) lessons and workshop sessions cover a range of fungal topics from cell structure and function, through biotechnology to health topics and plant growth and disease. The resources include games and activities, aiming to increase knowledge and awareness of fungi in an active, entertaining way and thereby maintain interest in biology as a science.