This new edition of Fungal Associations focuses on mycorrhizas, lichens and fungal-bacterial symbioses. It has been completely revised, updated and expanded. Renowned experts present thorough reviews and discuss the most recent findings on molecular interactions between fungi and plants or bacteria that lead to morphological alterations and novel properties in the symbionts. New insights into the beneficial impact of fungal associations on ecosystem health are provided and documented with striking examples.

This new edition of Fungal Associations focuses on mycorrhizas, lichens and fungal-bacterial symbioses. It has been completely revised, updated and expanded. Renowned experts present thorough reviews and discuss the most recent findings on molecular interactions between fungi and plants or bacteria that lead to morphological alterations and novel properties in the symbionts. New insights into the beneficial impact of fungal associations on ecosystem health are provided and documented with striking examples.

Fungi research and knowledge grew rapidly following recent advances in genetics and genomics. This book synthesizes new knowledge with existing information to stimulate new scientific questions and propel fungal scientists on to the next stages of research. This book is a comprehensive guide on fungi, environmental sensing, genetics, genomics, interactions with microbes, plants, insects, and humans, technological applications, and natural product development.

Mycology, the study of fungi, originated as a subdiscipline of botany and was a descrip tive discipline, largely neglected as an experimental science until the early years of this century. A seminal paper by Blakeslee in 1904 provided evidence for self incompatibility, termed "heterothallism", and stimulated interest in studies related to the control of sexual reproduction in fungi by mating-type specificities. Soon to follow was the demonstration that sexually reproducing fungi exhibit Mendelian inheritance and that it was possible to conduct formal genetic analysis with fungi. The names Burgeff, Kniep and Lindegren are all associated with this early period of fungal genet ics research. These studies and the discovery of penicillin by Fleming, who shared a Nobel Prize in 1945, provided further impetus for experimental research with fungi. Thus began a period of interest in mutation induction and analysis of mutants for biochemical traits. Such fundamental research, conducted largely with Neurospora crassa, led to the one gene: one enzyme hypothesis and to a second Nobel Prize for fungal research awarded to Beadle and Tatum in 1958. Fundamental research in biochemical genetics was extended to other fungi, especially to Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and by the mid-1960s fungal systems were much favored for studies in eukaryotic molecular biology and were soon able to compete with bacterial systems in the molecular arena.

There is an increasing interest in using fungi as bio control agents for insect pests in agricultural systems, and also a growing interest in the basic biology of insect-fungal associations from the perspective of parasitism, symbiosis and infection. This title covers topics in this field, incorporating new molecular techniques wherever possible.

This volume highlights fungal associations, as they are found in mycorrhizas, lichens and other fungal symbioses. The emphasis is laid upon the molecular, biochemical and ultrastructural analysis of these interactions. Major progress has been achieved over the last few years by the systematic application of modern methods, developed mainly in molecular biology. The data are presented in high-quality illustrations, leading the reader from the subcellular to higher levels of organization where specific symbiotic traits become apparent. Early stages of symbiotic interactions are of special interest. They are compared to parasitic interrelations and also considered from an evolutionary standpoint.

Insects and fungi have a shared history of association in common habitats where together they endure similar environmental conditions, but only recently have mycologists and entomologists recognized and had the techniques to study the intricacies of some of the associations. This new volume covers "seven wonders of the insect-fungus world" for which exciting new results have become available, often due to the use of new methods that include phylogenetic analysis and development of molecular markers. Eleven chapters of the volume are presented in two sections, "Fungi that act against insects" and "Fungi mutualistic with insects" that cover a number of major themes. Examples of necrotrophic parasites of insects are discussed, not only for biological control potential, but also as organisms with population structure and complex multipartite interactions; a beneficial role for symptomless endophytes in broad-leafed plants is proposed; biotrophic fungal parasites with reduced morphologies are placed among relatives using phylogenetic methods; complex methods of fungal spore dispersal include interactions with one or more arthropods; the farming behavior of New World attine ants is compared with that of humans and the Old World fungus-growing termites; certain mycophagous insects use fungi as a sole nutritional resource; and other insects obtain nutritional supplements from yeasts. Insects involved in fungal associations include--but are not limited to--members of the Coleoptera, Diptera, Homoptera, Hymenoptera, and Isoptera. The fungi involved in interactions with insects may be clustered taxonomically, as is the case for Ascomycetes in the Hypocreales (e.g., Beauveria, Metarhizium, Fusarium), ambrosia fungi in the genera ophiostoma and ceratocystis and their asexual relatives, Laboulbeniomycetes, Saccharomycetes, and the more basal Microsporidia. Other groups, however, have only occasional members (e.g., mushrooms cultivated by attine ants and termites) in such associations. The chapters included in this volume constitute a modern crash course in the study of insect-fungus associations.