Guy Leonard

TL;DR: Evidence for 36 novel marine lineages, the majority and most divergent of which branch with the chytrids, are discussed and what these data mean for the evolutionary history of the Fungi and specifically marine-terrestrial transitions are investigated.

TL;DR: Using whole-genome, gene-by-gene phylogenetic analysis, an extensive pattern of cross-kingdom HGT between fungi and oomycetes is demonstrated, consistent with the hypothesis that some oomyCetes became successful plant parasites by multiple acquisitions of genes from fungi.

TL;DR: Fungal mutants lacking a functional Fusarium (F)-RALF peptide failed to induce host alkalinization and showed markedly reduced virulence in tomato plants, while eliciting a strong host immune response.

TL;DR: Comparing the genomes of six plant species with those of 159 prokaryotic and eukaryotic species and identifying 1689 genes that show the highest similarity to corresponding genes from fungi suggests that two fungi-to-plant transfers have added phenotypes important for life in a soil environment.

TL;DR: A dual approach involving high-throughput diversity tag sequencing from both DNA and RNA templates and fluorescent cell counts is used to evaluate the diversity and relative abundance of fungi across marine samples taken from six European near-shore sites, demonstrating the phylogenetic position and environmental distribution of 71 lineages.