Diversity, Phylogeny, and Taxonomic of Forest Fungal Communities

VIVIANA SALAZAR VIDAL; MARIA JOSE DIVAN; MAXIMILIANO RUGOLO; GABRIELA CELESTE GONZALEZ; CAROLINA BARROETAVEÑA; ESTEBAN URRUTIA; HOMERO URRUTIA

Forest Fungi: Biodiversity, Conservation, Mycoforestry and Biotechnology

Academic Press

Año: 2024;

Fungi are among the most varied eukaryotes, and several species within the domain,including mutualistic mycorrhizas, decomposers, parasites, and pathogens, performsignificant ecological roles. Fungal diversity has been connected to the development offorest ecosystems and associated processes, but its composition and abundance alsocontribute to the variety and plenty of other species.This chapter has considered an introductory approach for answering two main questionsabout the fungal communities in the forest. On the one hand, the biodiversity andtaxonomic distribution of the main groups of forest-associated macro fungi are presented.On the other hand, their functional and physiological properties are described. The focus ison the variety of edible fungi secondary metabolites including the diversity and function ofthe bacterial communities inhabiting the inside of the hyphae (endo-microbiome) of forestassociatedmacro-fungi.The number of researchers integrating plant-fungi interactions in the study of forestecology has a long history, and the taxonomical diversity of both components is becomingbetter understood. However, macrofungi are only sometimes considered protagonists inthe design of modern conservation strategies for forest ecosystems.The holobiont (combined host and endo-microbiome) is an attractive model system toevaluate the molecular interactions between eukaryotic (fungus) and prokaryotic (bacterial)cells and to become the ecological reference model for understanding the plant-microberelationship in forest ecosystems.