The biodiversity, genomics, ecology and evolution of mushroom-forming fungi
摘要
The class Agaricomycetes represents the mushroom-forming fungi; it is a diverse group within the Basidiomycota with an evolutionary history spanning over 350 million years. Interest in Agaricomycetes has grown considerably over the past decades because of their important roles in nature, their developmental biology, and their use in green technologies and medicine. In this Review, we discuss how genomics approaches have contributed to important breakthroughs in understanding their ecology, evolution, development and conservation. We also explore the central challenges constraining further research. We postulate that the surge in omics exploration of Agaricomycetes over the past decade will be followed by a postgenomic era combining experimental, reverse genetics, ecological and functional genomics tools, helping to resolve the recalcitrant questions surrounding the complex biology of these fungi.