The evolution of thermal performance curves in fungi farmed by attine ant mutualists in above-ground or below-ground microclimates.

Fungi are abundant and ecologically important at a global scale, but little is known about whether their thermal adaptations are shaped by biochemical constraints (i.e., the hotter is better model) or evolutionary tradeoffs (i.

The coevolution of fungus-ant agriculture.

Fungus-farming ants cultivate multiple lineages of fungi for food, but, because fungal cultivar relationships are largely unresolved, the history of fungus-ant coevolution remains poorly known. We designed probes targeting >2000 gene regions to generate a dated evolutionary tree for 475 fungi and combined it with a similarly generated tree for 276 ants. We found that fungus-ant agriculture originated ~66 million years ago when the end-of-Cretaceous asteroid impact temporarily interrupted photosynthesis, causing global mass extinctions but favoring the proliferation of fungi.

Genomic Signatures of Domestication in a Fungus Obligately Farmed by Leafcutter Ants.

The naturally selected fungal crop (Leucoagaricus gongylophorus) farmed by leafcutter ants shows striking parallels with artificially selected plant crops domesticated by humans (e.g. polyploidy, engorged nutritional rewards, and dependence on cultivation).

Two +ssRNA mycoviruses cohabiting the fungal cultivar of leafcutter ants.

Leafcutter ants are dominant herbivores in the Neotropics and rely on a fungus (Leucoagaricus gongylophorus) to transform freshly gathered leaves into a source of nourishment rather than consuming the vegetation directly. Here we report two virus-like particles that were isolated from L. gongylophorus and observed using transmission electron microscopy.

Resolution of eleven reported and five novel species based on ITS phylogeny, phylogenomics, morphology, ecology, and geographic distribution.

The genus was first described from India by Linnaeus in 1771, but several revisions of the genus have left the taxonomy unclear. Forty-four species names and nine intraspecific varieties are currently accepted, but most fungarium specimens are labelled . Recent molecular analyses based on barcoding genes suggest that the genus comprises several species, but their status is largely unresolved.

Evidence that the domesticated fungus Leucoagaricus gongylophorus recycles its cytoplasmic contents as nutritional rewards to feed its leafcutter ant farmers.

Leafcutter ants farm a fungal cultivar (Leucoagaricus gongylophorus) that converts inedible vegetation into food that sustains colonies with up to millions of workers. Analogous to edible fruits of crops domesticated by humans, L. gongylophorus has evolved specialized nutritional rewards-swollen hyphal cells called gongylidia that package metabolites and are consumed by ant farmers.

Diversity and Evolution of (Russulales, Peniophoraceae), a Genus of Bark Beetle Mutualists Derived from Free-Living, Wood Rotting .

Symbiosis between insects and fungi arose multiple times during the evolution of both groups, and some of the most biologically diverse and economically important are mutualisms in which the insects cultivate and feed on fungi. Among these are bark beetles, whose ascomycetous cultivars are better known and studied than their frequently-overlooked and poorly understood basidiomycetous partners. In this study, we propose five new species of , fungal mutualists in the Russulales () that are mutualistic symbionts of scolytine beetles.

Crystallicutis gen. nov. (Irpicaceae, Basidiomycota), including C. damiettensis sp. nov., found on Phoenix dactylifera (date palm) trunks in the Nile Delta of Egypt.

The taxonomy of Polyporales is complicated by the variability in key morphological characters across families and genera, now being gradually resolved through molecular phylogenetic analyses. Here a new resupinate species, Crystallicutis damiettensis sp. nov.

Reclassification of Corner (Basidiomycota: Agaricales) introducing the ant-associated genus gen. nov., Henn. and the corticioid fam. nov.

was formally proposed to group six coralloid and dimitic genera: (=, , , , and . Recent molecular studies have shown that some of the characters currently used in do not distinguish the genera. and have been removed, and a few other resupinate genera were added to the family.

Reclassification of Corner (Pterulaceae, Agaricales), contributions to Lachnocladiaceae and Peniophoraceae (Russulales) and introduction of gen. nov.

The genus was first introduced to accommodate two Brazilian species of coralloid fungi with affinities to Pterulaceae (Agaricales). Despite the coralloid habit and the presence of skeletal hyphae, other features, notably the presence of gloeocystidia, dichophyses and papillate hyphal ends, differentiate this genus from Pterulaceae Fieldwork in Brazil resulted in the rediscovery of two coralloid fungi identifiable as , the first verified collections of this genus since Corner's original work in the 1950s. Molecular phylogenetic analyses of nrITS and nrLSU sequences from these modern specimens revealed affinities with the /peniophorales clade in the Russulales, rather than Pterulaceae.