Special Interest Group Meeting

“My fungi and other animals” – where do the Fungi fit in the overall scheme of life.

Gordon W. Beakes, Division of Biology, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU UK
Email: g.w.beakes@newcastle.ac.uk

The historical changes in the way biologists have grouped organisms at higher (Kingdom) levels and the changing placement of Fungi within these schemes will be briefly reviewed. The Fungi (including the diverse uniflagellate chytrids) form a monophyletic clade within the Opisthokonts, which includes the metazoan animals, collar flagellates, Mesomycetozoan parasites as well as the amoebozoans. Although the order of divergence of the major eukaryote clades has been difficult to establish (and indeed these groupings are still being refined as more molecular phylogenetic data becomes available), there is now evidence that all eukaryotes can be essentially be divided into either Bikont or Unikont (including Fungi) lines. However, we are still no nearer resolving the likely ancestral group from which the Fungi arose. Morphological and biochemical data at one time pointed to Nephromyces (a one time ‘chytrid’) as a possible ancestor but this organism has recently been shown to be an Apicocomplexan. Molecular evidence has shown that Microsporidia are part of the Fungal clade, although their precise placement is still open to debate. Interesting parallels will be drawn in characteristics shown by what are considered to be the earliest diverging lineages in both the Fungi and the unrelated, but fungal-like oomycetes.