Biology

Fungal ecology catches fire

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Progress in science is episodic and uneven; some fields get hot while others dwindle. Fungal ecology is undergoing an observationally driven boom, resulting from the application of pyrosequencing technology. Three papers in the current issue of New Phytologist (Buée et al., 449–456; Jumpponen & Jones, 438–448; Öpik et al., 424–437) illustrate the state of the science, using 454 sequencing of clone libraries derived from PCR-amplified ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes to characterize fungal communities. The volume of data in these studies is staggering; Buée et al. generated 166 000 sequences, while Öpik et al. and Jumpponen & Jones analyzed 125 000 and 18 000 sequences, respectively. The flood of data from these and similar studies provides ecologists with opportunities to describe fungal communities in greater detail than ever before. At the same time, the new technology challenges the taxonomic community to provide resources for molecular identification and to consider how (or whether) the rapidly accumulating sequence data can be used for species discovery and description.

Publication Title

New Phytologist

Publication Date

10-2009

Volume

184

Issue

2

First Page

279

Last Page

282

ISSN

0028-646X

DOI

10.1111/j.1469-8137.2009.03042.x

Keywords

biological nomenclature, Endophytes, Mycorrhizas, systematic, taxonomy

Cross Post Location

Student Publications

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