Endophytes: a rich source of functional metabolites.

Wood is a major pool of organic carbon that is highly resistant to decay, owing largely to the presence of lignin. The only organisms capable of substantial lignin decay are white rot fungi in the Agaricomycetes, which also contains non-lignin-degrading brown rot and ectomycorrhizal species. Comparative analyses of 31 fungal genomes (12 generated for this study) suggest that lignin-degrading peroxidases expanded in the lineage leading to the ancestor of the Agaricomycetes, which is reconstructed as a white rot species, and then contracted in parallel lineages leading to brown rot and mycorrhizal species. Molecular clock analyses suggest that the origin of lignin degradation might have coincided with the sharp decrease in the rate of organic carbon burial around the end of the Carboniferous period.

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The paleozoic origin of enzymatic lignin decomposition reconstructed from 31 fungal genomes

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Economic and environmental threats of alien plant, animal, and microbe invasions

The commercial storage of fruits, vegetables, and florist and nursery stocks

Geomycology: biogeochemical transformations of rocks, minerals, metals and radionuclides by fungi, bioweathering and bioremediation

Acremonium is generally considered to be a highly polyphyletic form genus containing distantly related fungi. Sectional divisions within Acremonium distinguish the clavicipitaceous grass endophytes of sect. Albolanosa from the generally saprobic species of sections Acremonium, Chaetomioides, Gliomastix, and Nectrioidea. In an effort to assess the possible number of lineages currently placed within Acremon- ium and to determine which groups of sexual asco- mycetes are phylogenetically affiliated with Acremon- ium species, maximum parsimony and neighborjoin- ing analyses were performed using partial sequences of the nuclear small subunit ribosomal DNA (18S rDNA). Acremonium was shown to be a polyphyletic taon with affiliations to at least three ascomycetous orders: 1) most of the examined species from the sections Acremonium, Gliomastix, and Nectrioidea showed a relationship to the Hypocreaceae even though many of these species have never been asso- ciated with any teleomorph; 2) the grass endophytes of sect. Albolanosa and other taxa from the Clavicip- itaceae formed a monophyletic group derived from within the Hypocreales; 3) the thermophilic A. ala- bamense of sect. Chaetomioides was derived from with- in the Sordariales. Acremonium alternatum, the tye species of the genus, was one of the species showing affiliation to the Hypocreaceae. In order to eliminate some of the heterogeneity within Acremonium while also emphasizing the unique biological, morpholog- ical, and ecological characteristics of the grass en do-

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Molecular phylogeny of Acremonium and its taxonomic implications.

We describe a perithecial, pleomorphic ascomycetous fungus from the Early Devonian (400 mya) Rhynie chert; the fungus occurs in the cortex just beneath the epidermis of aerial stems and rhizomes of the vascular plant Asteroxylon. Perithecia are nearly spherical with a short, ostiolate neck that extends into a substomatal chamber of the host plant; periphyses line the inner surface of the ostiole. The ascocarp wall is multilayered and formed of septate hyphae; extending from the inner surface are elongate asci interspersed with delicate paraphyses. Asci appear to be unitunicate and contain up to 16 smooth, uniseriate-biseriate ascospores. The method of ascospore liberation is unknown; however, the tip of the ascus is characterized by a narrow, slightly elevated circular collar. Ascospores appear 1-5 celled, and germination is from one end of the spore. Also present along the stems and interspersed among the perithecia are acervuli of conidiophores that are interpreted as the anamorph of the fungus. Conidiogenesis is thallic, basipetal and probably of the holoarthric-type; arthrospores are cube-shaped. Some perithecia contain mycoparasites in the form of hyphae and thick-walled spores of various sizes. The structure and morphology of the fossil fungus is compared with modern ascomycetes that produce perithecial ascocarps, and characters that define the fungus are considered in the context of ascomycete phylogeny.

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Richard T. Hanlin

Papers

Molecular phylogeny of Acremonium and its taxonomic implications.

Perithecial ascomycetes from the 400 million year old Rhynie chert: an example of ancestral polymorphism

Westcott's Plant Disease Handbook

Naphthoquinone spiroketal with allelochemical activity from the newly discovered endophytic fungus Edenia gomezpompae.

Molecular phylogeny ofAcremoniumand its taxonomic implications