Genome Studies Uncover a New Branch in Fungal Evolution
Published:12 Dec.2022 Source:University of Alberta
About 600 seemingly disparate fungi that never quite found a fit along the fungal family tree have been shown to have a common ancestor, according to a University of Alberta-led research team that used genome sequencing to give these peculiar creatures their own classification home.
"They don't have any particular feature that you can see with the naked eye where you can say they belong to the same group. But when you go to the genome, suddenly this emerges," says Toby Spribille, principal investigator on the project and associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences.
"I like to think of these as the platypus and echidna of the fungal world."
Spribille, Canada Research Chair in Symbiosis, is referring to Australia's famed Linnaean classification system-defying monotremes -- which produce milk and have nipples, but lay eggs -- that were the source of debate as to whether they were even real.
"Though nobody thought our fungi were fake, it's similar because they all look totally different."
Using DNA-based dating techniques, the team found that this new class of fungi, called Lichinomycetes, descended from a single origin 300 million years ago, or 240 million years before the extinction of dinosaurs.
David Díaz-Escandón, who performed the research as part of his PhD thesis, explains that these "oddball" fungi were previously sprinkled across seven different classes -- a high-level grouping that in animals would be equivalent to the groups called mammals or reptiles.