Kingdom Fungi

Champions of the hidden kingdom

The Italian authorities claim that more than 17 people have died this summer collecting mushrooms from its northern and central mountains. People, it appears, are taking increasing risks in gathering these most prized elements of Italian food. And, of course, mushrooms feature as prized items in the recipes of many other cuisines. But the prominence and respect for the few species of edible fun...

Genomics of the fungal kingdom: insights into eukaryotic biology.

The last decade has witnessed a revolution in the genomics of the fungal kingdom. Since the sequencing of the first fungus in 1996, the number of available fungal genome sequences has increased by an order of magnitude. Over 40 complete fungal genomes have been publicly released with an equal number currently being sequenced--representing the widest sampling of genomes from any eukaryotic kingd...

Morphology and General Properties of Fungi

Fungus is a member of a large group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds (British English: moulds), as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, Fungi, which is separate from plants, animals, protists and bacteria. One major difference is that fungal cells have cell walls that contain chitin, unlike the cell walls ...

Systematics of Microbial Kingdom (s) and Fungi

Chemical stimulation of sexual reproduction in Phytophthora and Pythium

The genera of Phytophthora and Pythium are two of the very destructive groups of plant pathogens in the world (Plaats-Niterink, 1981; Erwin and Ribeiro, 1996). They attack mainly mature plants and young seedlings, respectively, of forest, fruit, vegetable, flower, and ornamental species. These two groups of fungi are classified in the family Pythiaceae of the Oomycetes, which is excluded from t...