The Pacific Ocean and the “Pacific Rim” include a vast geographic area and most categories of the earth's ecological niches. As could be expected, macrofungi conform to many distribution patterns, some of which are discussed in this article. An introduction to species concepts and some other ancillary methodological considerations is followed by examples of some distributional patterns: Gondwanan, Transberingian, and island biogeographic. Some considerations of changing distributional patterns are also discussed: widening distributions, probable human mediation, and some unique cases that seem not to conform to accepted patterns. Not surprisingly, we conclude that concerted future collecting and comparison of specimens using multiple methodologies offer the only hope for understanding mushroom distributions, regardless of the geographic area of interest.

A short review of the use of optical tweezers in fungal cell biological research is provided. First, we describe how optical tweezers work. Second, we review how they have been used in various experimental live-cell studies to manipulate intracellular organelles, hyphal growth and branching, and whole cells. Third, we indicate how optically trapped microbeads can be used for the localized delivery of chemicals or mechanical stimulation to cells, as well as permitting measurements of the growth forces generated by germ tubes. Finally, the effects of optical trapping on fungal cell viability and growth are assessed.

Five early-phase ammonia fungi (EP fungi) – Amblyosporium botrytis, Ascobolus denudatus, Peziza moravecii, Pseudombrophila petrakii, Coprinopsis phlyctidospora, and Tephrocybe tesquorum, and one late-phase ammonia fungus (LP fungus), Hebeloma vinosophyllum – were co-cultured on malt extract-yeast extract agar media at pH 5.5, 7.0, 8.0, and 9.0. The co-cultures among the earlystage EP fungi Amblyosporium botrytis, Ascobolus denudatus, Peziza moravecii, and Pseudombrophila petrakii, generally did not inhibit or accelerate the reproductive structure formation of the opposed fungi. Among the EP fungi, Am. botrytis, As. denudatus, and Pe. moravecii intermingled with each other. The late-stage EP fungus T. tesquorum inhibited the growth of other EP fungi. Another late-stage EP fungus, C. phlyctidospora, showed ability to invade other EP fungi, but it did not deeply invade into the territories of early-stage EP fungi. The LP fungus H. vinosophyllum tended to accelerate basidioma formation of C. phlyctidospora at pH 5.5 and 9.0. H. vinosophyllum formed the highest numbers of basidomata at pH 5.5. These results show that successive occurrence of ammonia fungi is caused by the interspecific interactions among ammonia fungi as well as by the physiological characteristic of each fungus associated with conditions of its inhabiting soils, such as pH and nitrogen concentration.

Two strains belonging to a novel anamorphic species, Pseudozyma graminicola, were isolated from the leaves of herbaceous plants in the Moscow region (Russia). This species was genetically distinct from all known Pseudozyma species, based on sequence divergence in the D1/D2 domains of the large subunit rDNA and the ITS region. It is related phylogenetically to species of the genus Sporisorium (Ustilaginaceae, Ustilaginales). Physiological characteristics distinguishing this novel species from the other species of the genus Pseudozyma are presented.

tyr1, the gene for tyrosinase, which is related to pigmentation of mycelia in dikaryotic strains, has been cloned and characterized from the basidiomycete Polyporus arcularius. The gene was present in a single copy in the genome. The putative amino acid sequence of Tyr1 was very similar to that of gLeTyr from Lentinula edodes. However, the carboxy-terminal region of the amino acid sequence of Tyr1 was variable among L. edodes, Agaricus bisporus, and this fungus. In the 5’-untranslated region near the initiation codon, a consensus sequence to the Dof1 binding site that is involved in light-regulated gene expression in maize was found. Transcription of tyr1 was photoregulated; transcription of tyr1 in P. arcularius was activated in light mycelia and inactivated in the dark mycelia. These results suggest that tyr1 is a light-regulated gene regulated by a Dof-like transcription factor in P. arcularius. Although the enzyme activity was observed only in a dikaryon, tyr1 was transcripted in both dikaryotic and monokaryotic strains. Thus, activation of the precursor of Tyr1 may require a posttranslational processing event that is developmentally regulated.

Polyporus phyllostachydis is described and illustrated as a new species. This species is characterized by its occurrence on bamboo roots, the small and centrally stipitate basidiocarps, the white pileus, usually becoming darker from the center at maturity, and the cylindrical stipe with a distinct crust. Morphological characters of the present species were compared with those of P. cryptopus and P. rhizophilus, other rhizophilic species of the genus. Polyporus cryptopus and P. rhizophilus are morphologically distinct by contextual texture, basidiospores, and hyphae, and possibly represent two distinct species.

Endophytic and epiphytic phyllosphere fungi associated with red-osier dogwood (Cornus stolonifera), a deciduous shrub, were examined in coastal British Columbia, Canada. Current-year shoots were divided into four types based on the absence or presence of inflorescence and secondary elongated shoots at the apex of primary shoots. Leaves on these shoots were then classified into six categories so as to examine the effect of flowering, secondary shoot elongation, and shoot order within current year shoots on the occurrence of phyllosphere fungi. Species composition of fungi was markedly different between the interior and surface of leaves, whereas it was relatively similar among the six leaf categories in the interior or on the surface. Frequencies of the eight major species were not different between leaves on flowering and nonflowering shoots. The frequency of Colletotrichum gloeosporioides in the leaf interior was greater on leaves on the primary shoots that elongated the secondary shoots than on those that did not, and was greater on leaves on the primary shoots than on those on the secondary shoots. On the other hand, secondary shoot elongation and shoot order had no effect on the frequencies of C. gloeosporioides and the other seven epiphytes on leaf surfaces.

Five species of the genus Neonectria (Nectriaceae, Hypocreales) collected from Japan are described with discussion and illustrated. Among them, one found on dead twigs of a broad-leaved tree is described as a new species, Neonectria tokyoensis (anamorph: Cylindrocarpon tokyoense). Neonectria cinnamomea and Neo. discophora are newly added to the Japanese mycobiota. Nectria azureoostiolata, recorded in 1977 from Japan, is reexamined as a synonym of Neo. jungneri. Neonectria radicicola, teleomorph of Cy. destructans, a well-known soil-borne plant pathogen in Japan, is newly recorded from Japan. Additional distribution records are provided for the Neonectria species hitherto recorded in Japan.

The total number of collembolans collected from the hyphal mat of the ectomycorrhizal fungus Sarcodon scabrosus was less than half of that collected from the adjacent non-mat soil. The same was true of all families of collembolans except one, although not all differences were significant. The exception was the Hypogastruridae, with more individuals in the hyphal mat on the sampling day in the fruiting season; these were also the most abundant collembolans on the fruiting bodies. These results indicate that most collembolans avoid the hyphal mat of S. scabrosus in a Japanese red pine forest.

Diplocystis wrightii is an enigmatic gasteroid basidiomycete from the Caribbean. It has taxonomic affiliations with Lycoperdaceae, Broomeiaceae, and Sclerodermataceae. This study sampled ITS and 28S ribosomal genes from three D. wrightii specimens to determine the phylogenetic placement and the closest relatives of this species. Results of database searches and phylogenetic analysis indicate this species to be a member of the Sclerodermatineae and most closely related to the genera Astraeus and Tremellogaster.