Molecular Phylogenetics of Fungal Taxa
Summary
Molecular phylogenetics has revolutionised the study of fungal diversity by employing DNA sequence data to infer evolutionary relationships among species, genera and higher taxa. Early work relied heavily on ribosomal DNA regions, notably the internal transcribed spacer (ITS), but rapid advances in sequencing technologies and bioinformatic tools have enabled multilocus and genome-scale analyses. These approaches resolve deep divergences across major phyla such as Ascomycota and Basidiomycota, delimit cryptic species complexes, and trace the origins of pathogenic and symbiotic lineages. Molecular phylogenetics underpins modern taxonomy by providing an objective framework for monophyletic classification, informs estimates of divergence times calibrated against fossil records, and supports ecological and biogeographical studies through robust evolutionary trees. Practical applications range from accurate diagnosis of plant and human pathogens to conservation of endangered taxa and exploration of fungal metabolites with biotechnological potential.
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Molecular Phylogenetics of Fungal Taxa publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in molecular phylogenetics of fungal taxa across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Internal transcribed spacer (ITS): A non-coding region of ribosomal DNA widely used as a DNA barcode for species-level identification in fungi.
Large subunit (LSU) rDNA: A conserved portion of ribosomal DNA used to resolve deeper phylogenetic relationships among fungal taxa.
Multilocus phylogeny: An approach that combines sequence data from multiple independent genes to improve resolution and support for evolutionary trees.
Monophyly: A group of organisms that includes an ancestor and all its descendants, reflecting a single evolutionary lineage.
Bootstrap support: A statistical measure of confidence in specific branches of a phylogenetic tree, based on resampling of the data.
References
- Polydomus karssenii gen. nov. sp. nov. is a dark septate endophyte with a bifunctional lifestyle parasitising eggs of plant parasitic cyst nematodes (Heterodera spp.). IMA Fungus (2023).
- Notes, outline and divergence times of Basidiomycota. Fungal Diversity (2019).
- A multigene phylogeny toward a new phylogenetic classification of Leotiomycetes. IMA Fungus (2019).
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