The Fungal Kingdom

Fungi research and knowledge grew rapidly following recent advances in genetics and genomics. This book synthesizes new knowledge with existing information to stimulate new scientific questions and propel fungal scientists on to the next stages of research. This book is a comprehensive guide on fungi, environmental sensing, genetics, genomics, interactions with microbes, plants, insects, and humans, technological applications, and natural product development.

2. Six key traits of fungi: their evolutionary origins and genetic bases

3. What defines the "kingdom" fungi?

4. Fungal diversity revisited: 2.2 to 3.8 million species

5. Microsporidia: obligate intracellular pathogens within the fungal kingdom

Section II: Life of Fungi: 6. Fungal sex: the Ascomycota

7. Fungal sex: The Basidiomycota

8. Fungal Sex: The Mucoromycota

9. Sex and the imperfect fungi

10. Molecular mechanisms regulating cell fusion and heterokaryon formation in filamentous fungi

11. Cell biology of hyphal growth

12. The fungal cell wall: structure, biosynthesis, and function

13. Fungal ecology: principles and mechanisms of colonization and competition by saprotrophic fungi

14. Longdistance dispersal of fungi

15. The mycelium as a network

Section III: Fungal Ecology: 16. The geomycology of elemental cycling and transformations in the environment

17. Ecology of fungal plant pathogens

18. Key ecological roles for zoosporic true fungi in aquatic habitats

Section IV: How Fungi Sense Their Environment: 19. Nutrient sensing at the plasma membrane of fungal cells

20. The complexity of fungal vision

21. Stress adaptation

22. Thigmo responses: the fungal sense of touch

23. Melanin, radiation, and energy transduction in fungi

24. Making time: conservation of biological clocks from fungi to animals

25. Target of rapamycin (TOR) regulates growth in response to nutritional signals

Section V: Fungal Genetics and Genomics as Models for Biology: 26. Fungal cell cycle: a unicellular versus multicellular comparison

27. A matter of scale and dimensions: chromatin of chromosome landmarks in the fungi

28. Ploidy variation in fungi: polyploidy, aneuploidy, and genome evolution

29. Fungal genomes and insights into the evolution of the kingdom

30. Sources of fungal genetic variation and associating it with phenotypic diversity

31. RNA interference in fungi: retention and loss

32. Amyloid prions in fungi

33. Repeatinduced point mutation and other genome defense mechanisms in fungi

Section VI: Fungal Interactions with Plants: Impact on Agriculture and the Biosphere: 34. Plant pathogenic fungi

35. The mutualistic interaction between plants and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi

36. Lichenized fungi and the evolution of symbiotic organization

37. Fungal plant pathogenesis mediated by effectors

38. Emerging fungal threats to plants and animals challenge agriculture and ecosystem resilience

Section VII: Fungi and the Human Host: 39. Fungi that infect humans

40. The mycobiome: impact on health and disease states

41. Skin fungi from colonization to infection

42. Fungal biofilms: inside out

43. Fungal recognition and host defense mechanisms

44. Antifungal drugs: the current armamentarium and development of new agents

Section VIII: Fungal Interactions with Animals (Fungi, Insects, and Nematodes) and Other Microbes: 45. The insect pathogens

46. Made for each other: ascomycete yeasts and insects

47. Nematodetrapping fungi

48. Hostmicrosporidia interactions in Caenorhabiditis elegans, a model nematode host

49. Bacterial endosymbionts: master modulators of fungal phenotypes

50. Necrotrophic mycoparasites and their genomes

Section IX: Fungi: Technology and Natural Products: 51. Fungal enzymes and yeasts for conversion of plant biomass to bioenergy and highvalue products

52. Fungal ligninolytic enzymes and their applications

53. Fungi as a source of food

54. Biologically active secondary metabolites from the fungi.

REVIEW 1

This large format volume, weighing a hefty 2.8 kg, has taken about four years to prepare. It represents an enormous undertaking, which has involved over 170 mycologists and other researchers. A nine-section structure was worked out by the team of six editors, who stated that it was their “hope, and our goal and intention, that this book both takes stock of the current state of knowledge in the field and also spurs further investigation” (p. xxi). By mid-2015 the scope of each of the 54 chapters had been sketched out and contributors' names that had tentatively been pencilled-in started to be invited. In order to make the task manageable, the sections were assigned to particular editors, each of whom had the responsibility of securing the delivery of contributions and having them reviewed and revised. Chapters necessarily proceeded at different rates, but when they had been completed, they were published online in final form (apart from pagination) on the American Society for Microbiology's Microbiology Spectrum site so that they could start to be used and cited from that source. As anyone who has ever edited a multi-authored volume will know, such works inevitably proceed to completion at the rate of the slowest. It was only after that point was reached in 2017 that the book could finally be put together, paginated, indexed, bound and published.

The nine sections decided upon were: (1) Fungal branches on the eukaryotic tree of life (5 chapters); (2) Life of fungi (10); (3) Fungal ecology (3); (4) How fungi sense their environment (7); (5) Fungal genetics and genomics as models for biology (8); (6) Fungal interactions with plants: impact on agriculture and the biosphere (5); (7) Fungi and the human host (6); (8) Fungal interactions with animals (fungi, insects, and nematodes) and other microbes (6); and (9) Fungal technology and natural products (4).

It would be invidious to highlight particular chapters here, but in general I have found them not to be only dry reviews, but also to contain new syntheses and insights into many of them; a consequence of the editors having gone to great efforts to secure the world leaders in the assigned topics where possible. Indeed, the list of contributors reads rather like a Who's Who of mycology.

The whole is well-presented with numerous figures, many of which are in colour, and all chapters have extensive reference lists. The price is far from unreasonable for such a massive hard-bound work, and as this is a real vade mecum for mycology all mycological libraries should acquire a copy, and I am sure most mycologists will also aspire to own one. The editors are to be congratulated on this truly momentous achievement."

-BOOK NEWS REVIEW (NO INDIVIDUAL REVIEWER NOTED)

REVIEW 2

A fabulous book that presents a broad overview of our current knowledge of the fungi, with individual chapters written by leading scientists and assembled by an editorial panel of distinguished mycologists. A wonderful resource for anyone interested in the fungal kingdom.

-Bruce McDonald, Plant Pathology, Institute of Integrative Biology, Zurich"

The Fungal Kingdom

First Edition

Fungi research and knowledge grew rapidly following recent advances in genetics and genomics. This book synthesizes new knowledge with existing information to stimulate new scientific questions and propel fungal scientists on to the next stages of research. This book is a comprehensive guide on fungi, environmental sensing, genetics, genomics, interactions with microbes, plants, insects, and humans, technological applications, and natural product development.