Six Key Traits of Fungi: Their Evolutionary Origins and Genetic Bases LÁSZLÓ G
Six Key Traits of Fungi: Their Evolutionary Origins and Genetic Bases LÁSZLÓ G. NAGY,1 RENÁTA TÓTH,2 ENIKŐ KISS,1 JASON SLOT,3 ATTILA GÁCSER,2 and GÁBOR M. KOVÁCS4,5 1Synthetic and Systems Biology Unit, Institute of Biochemistry, HAS, Szeged, Hungary; 2Department of Microbiology, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary; 3Department of Plant Pathology, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210; 4Department of Plant Anatomy, Institute of Biology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary; 5Plant Protection Institute, Center for Agricultural Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary ABSTRACT The fungal lineage is one of the three large provides an overview of some of the most important eukaryotic lineages that dominate terrestrial ecosystems. fungal traits, how they evolve, and what major genes They share a common ancestor with animals in the eukaryotic and gene families contribute to their development. The supergroup Opisthokonta and have a deeper common ancestry traits highlighted here represent just a sample of the with plants, yet several phenotypes, such as morphological, physiological, or nutritional traits, make them unique among characteristics that have evolved in fungi, including po- all living organisms. This article provides an overview of some of larized multicellular growth, fruiting body development, the most important fungal traits, how they evolve, and what dimorphism, secondary metabolism, wood decay, and major genes and gene families contribute to their development. mycorrhizae. However, a great deal of other important The traits highlighted here represent just a sample of the traits also underlie the evolution of the taxonomically characteristics that have evolved in fungi, including polarized and phenotypically hyperdiverse fungal kingdom, which multicellular growth, fruiting body development, dimorphism, could fill up a volume on its own.
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