Outline Of Classification Of Fungi

Since the 1990s, dramatic changes have occurred in the classification of fungi. Improved understanding of relationships of fungi traditionally placed in the phyla Chytridiomycota and Zygomycota has resulted in the dissolution of outmoded taxons and the generation of new taxons. The Chytridiomycota is retained but in a restricted sense. One of Chytridiomycota’s traditional orders, the Blastocladiales, has been raised to phylum status as the Blastocladiomycota. Similarly, the group of anaerobic rumen chytrids, previously known as order Neocallimastigales, has been recognized as a distinct phylum, the Neocallimastigomycota. The phylum Zygomycota is not accepted in the phylogenetic classification of fungi because of remaining doubts about relationships between the groups that have traditionally been placed in this phylum. The consequences of this decision are the recognition of the phylum Glomeromycota and of four subphyla incertae sedis (Latin for “of uncertain position”): Mucoromycotina, Kickxellomycotina, Zoopagomycotina, and Entomophthoromycotina.

The true fungi, which make up the monophyletic clade called kingdom Fungi, comprise seven phyla: Chytridiomycota, Blastocladiomycota, Neocallimastigomycota, Microsporidia, Glomeromycota, Ascomycota, and Basidiomycota (the latter two being combined in the subkingdom Dikarya). The group of ancestral fungi is thought to be represented by the present-day Chytridiomycota, although the Microsporidia may be an equally ancient sister group. The first major steps in the evolution of higher fungi were the loss of the chytrid flagellum and the development of branching, aseptate fungal filaments, which occurred as terrestrial fungi diverged from water molds 600 million to 800 million years ago. Septate filaments evolved as the Glomeromycota diverged from a combined clade of pre-basidiomycota and pre-ascomycota fungi about 500 million years ago. Hyphae with the characteristic appearance of modern Basidiomycota can be seen in some of the earliest known specimens of plant fossils. Therefore, Ascomycota and Basidiomycota probably diverged as so-called sister groups, which are placed together in subkingdom Dikarya, about 300 million years ago. The easily recognizable mushroom fungi probably diversified 130 million to 200 million years ago, soon after flowering plants became an important part of the flora and well before the age of dinosaurs. A relatively recent evolutionary radiation, perhaps 60 million to 80 million years ago, of anaerobic Chytridiomycota occurred as grasses and grazing mammals became more abundant; the chytrid fungi serve as symbionts within the rumen of such animals, thereby enabling the grazing mammals to digest grasses.