Thailand’s amazing diversity: up to 96% of fungi in northern Thailand may be novel

Hyde, Kevin D.; Norphanphoun, Chada; Chen, Jie; Dissanayake, Asha J.; Doilom, Mingkwan; Hongsanan, Sinang; Jayawardena, Ruvishika S.; Jeewon, Rajesh; Perera, Rekhani H.; Thongbai, Benjarong; Wanasinghe, Dhanushka N.; Wisitrassameewong, Komsit; Tibpromma, Saowaluck; Stadler, Marc

doi:10.1007/s13225-018-0415-7

Cited by 148 publications

(119 citation statements)

References 171 publications

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“…Roy et al 2017) that combine descriptive taxonomy with phylogenetics in an often well-funded scientific environment. These regions are likely part of the most important cradles of biodiversity, but also those where our ignorance of that diversity is presently the worst (Hyde et al 2018).…”

Section: The Taxonomic Impedimentmentioning

confidence: 99%

The unbearable lightness of sequenced-based identification

Hofstetter

Buyck

Eyssartier³

et al. 2019

Fungal Diversity

102

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Using the basic GenBank local alignment search tool program (BLAST) to identify fungi collected in a recently protected beech forest at Montricher (Switzerland), the number of ITS sequences associated to the wrong taxon name appears to be around 30%, even higher than previously estimated. Such results rely on the in-depth re-examination of BLAST results for the most interesting species that were collected, viz. first records for Switzerland, rare or patrimonial species and problematic species (when BLAST top scores were equally high for different species), all belonging to Agaricomycotina. This paper dissects for the first time a number of sequence-based identifications, thereby showing in every detail-particularly to the user community of taxonomic information-why sequence-based identification in the context of a fungal inventory can easily go wrong. Our first conclusion is that in-depth examination of BLAST results is too time consuming to be considered as a routine approach for future inventories: we spent two months on verification of approx. 20 identifications. Apart from the fact that poor taxon coverage in public depositories remains the principal impediment for successful species identification, it can be deplored that even very recent fungal sequence deposits in GenBank involve an uncomfortably high number of misidentifications or errors with associated metadata. While checking the original publications associated with top score sequences for the few examples that were here reexamined , a positive consequence is that we uncovered over 80 type sequences that were not annotated as types in GenBank. Advantages and pitfalls of sequence-based identification are discussed, particularly in the light of undertaking fungal inventories. Recommendations are made to avoid or reduce some of the major problems with sequence-based identification. Nevertheless, the prospects for a more reliable sequence-based identification of fungi remain quite dim, unless authors are ready to check and update the metadata associated with previously deposited sequences in their publications.

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Section: The Taxonomic Impedimentmentioning

confidence: 99%

The unbearable lightness of sequenced-based identification

Hofstetter

Buyck

Eyssartier³

et al. 2019

Fungal Diversity

102

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“…There has been a great increase in mycological research and publications from Asian institutes and universities, while formerly strong research groups were found in Japan and Taiwan [23] showed that many more fungal taxa were being described from China, while Hyde et al [24] showed that the fungal diversity in northern Thailand was remarkably high, with up to 93% of some genera (e.g, Agaricus) being new to science.…”

Section: Major Advances By Asian Mycologistsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thailand has more than 6000 known species of fungi and between 2009-2020 Hyde and coworkers have described 700 new species mostly from northern Thailand. Yet collections have been from many new habitats, hosts or areas, with numerous new species documented, including those in new genera, families and orders [4,24]. The bottleneck in describing these new species is the lack of students for the necessary detailed morphological and phylogenetic studies and ability to obtain molecular data.…”

Section: Major Advances By Asian Mycologistsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Asia has provided major advances in describing many of its fungi. Hyde et al [24] showed that 96% of Amanita and 93% of Agaricus species collected in mainly northern Thailand were new to science. Other important contributions were monographs of Boletales [49] and Amanita [50] and studies on Polyporaceae [51] and advances in the genus Agaricus.…”

Section: Terrestrial Saprobesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Knowledge of fungal evolution helps to provide an understanding of the diversity of life as similarities between species/higher-level taxa occur as heritable changes over time and in populations. Fungi in Asia are clearly highly diverse, especially in tropical Asia [24]. Although the numerous fungi discovered in Asia are morphologically and phylogenetically well-studied, there have been relatively few evolutionary studies.…”

Section: Evolution Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The rise of mycology in Asia

Hyde¹,

Chethana²,

Jayawardena³

et al. 2020

ScienceAsia

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Mycology was a well-studied discipline in Australia and New Zealand, Europe, South Africa and the USA. In Asia (with the exception of Japan) and South America, the fungi were generally poorly known and studied, except for the result of forays from some American and European mycologists. However, in the last 20 years, the situation has changed. With the development of Asian economies, the funding for science research and development has greatly increased. Mycological research has also diversified in many fields. Many studies have focused on applied aspects and new journals and websites have been established as a platform for Asian mycologists to publish their research. This paper will briefly review the history of the study of fungi in Asia and then discuss how it advanced during the last two decades. It will examine the current situation using case studies in plant pathogens, terrestrial saprobes, aquatic fungi, evolution studies, genomics and applied mycology and biotechnology. Finally, it will suggest research that is needed in the future.

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