A new species of Aspergillus section Fumigati, Aspergillus siamensis, isolated from coastal forest soil in Samaesarn island, Chonburi province, Eastern Thailand, is described and illustrated. This species is characterized by its broadly lenticular ascospores with two wide equatorial crests and finely spinulose and rugose convex surfaces and produced pale pinkish exudates after 14 d incubation on Czapek agar. The validation of this new species was supported further by analyses of the β-tubulin, calmodulin and actin gene sequences.

Species of Laccaria are described from the eastern Himalayas, in the Xizang Autonomous Region of China, more commonly known as Tibet. Specimens were collected during several expeditions over a 12-year time span. Nuclear ribosomal internally transcribed spacer regions 1 and 2 including and 5.8S (ITS) as well as the 5' end of the large subunit (28S) sequence data were generated for 22 specimens from Tibet and analyzed in a dataset of 115 Laccaria samples. The results documented seven species from this region, five of which represent currently undescribed species. The taxonomy of Tibetan Laccaria is discussed, five new species are proposed, and an artificial key that includes extralimital species from Asia is provided.

Two species of Scolecobasidium were isolated from soil in Hainan and Hebei Provinces, China. The two taxa develop broadly ellipsoid conidia and ellipsoidal to oblong conidia, respectively. Their taxonomic placement in Scolecobasidium was confirmed by morphological similarity and phylogenetic analysis of the RNA polymerase II subunit b (RPB2) sequence data. The two fungi, which are morphologically distinct to previously described species, and occupy unique positions in the phylogenetic tree, are thus introduced as the new species Scolecobasidium terricola and S. ellipsoideum. They are described and illustrated and compared with similar species in the genus.

A true slime mold, the plasmodium of Physarum polycephalum has the ability to find the shortest route between two points in a labyrinth. To find the shortest route between two points, detection of the difference in lengths can be made from two aspects: the absolute difference between the lengths or the ratio of them. We found that the ratio of two lengths, rather than the absolute difference between the two lengths, was important in discriminating the difference in the two lengths by P. polycephalum. This finding indicates that an amoeboid organism detects differences in stimulus intensity as though it is constrained by Weber's law, suggesting that Weber's law is not reliant on the presence of a neural system and is used widely even in Amoebozoa.

Ashbya gossypii and Eremothecium ashbyi are riboflavin over producing fungi. Guanosine tri-phosphate (GTP) cyclohydrolase II, encoded by RIB1 gene, catalyses the rate limiting step of the riboflavin biosynthetic pathway. We report here the antagonistic effect of myo-inositol on riboflavin production in these two fungi by adapting them in Yeast Malt Agar (YMA) media containing 0.1% inositol. The adapted E. ashbyi showed 92% reduction and the adapted Ashbya showed 39% increase in the total riboflavin production, when compared to that produced by E. ashbyi and Ashbya respectively. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) study indicated that myo-inositol reduced RIB1 gene expression in adapted E. ashbyi but enhanced the same in adapted Ashbya.

Since the summer of 2010, a discomycete with erumpent apothecia associated with a leaf blight of Miscanthus leaves, were often collected. The morphological characteristics of the fungus suggested it was a member of the Helotiales rather than the Rhytismatales and this was supported by a phylogenetic analysis. Based on a morphological comparison with the type specimen of Naemacyclus culmigenus, currently known from Poaceae (Andropogon and Panicum), it was identified as N. culmigenus, new to Japan. The molecular phylogenetic analysis showed that the generic delimitation of Naemacyclus and related species requires clarification, as does their higher classification within the Leotiomycetes.

Tricholoma dulciolens is an ectomycorrhizal basidiomycete that produces “matsutake”-like mushrooms in association with Picea abies in Fennoscandia. The phylogenetic position of T. dulciolens relative to matsutake species is, however, unknown. In the present study, we demonstrated that T. dulciolens is phylogenetically independent from T. matsutake and its allied species. In addition, herbarium specimens identified as T. caligatum from Abies alba forests in Spain were phylogenetically related to but distinct from T. dulciolens. Based on ribosomal internal transcribed spacer DNA sequence data, T. dulciolens appears to exist in North America, as well. This is the first phylogeny of T. dulciolens in Fennoscandia and its related species in southern Europe.

Mycorrhizal fungi of mycoheterotrophic Burmannia nepalensis and B. itoana were identified by molecular identification methods based on fungal SSU nrDNA region. In B. nepalensis, RFLP patterns and sequences from all root samples from 14 individuals were identical. A single fungal sequence was also obtained from B. itoana roots from three individuals. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the fungal sequences from these two species are included in Glomeraceae (former Glomus group A). Our results indicate that the two Burmannia species are associated with narrow phylogenetic ranges of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi.

The mechanistic bases of saprotrophic fungal dynamics in soil are not fully clarified. By assessing hyphal density and radial expansion of Aspergillus niger on extracts 45 plant litter types (15 species at 3 decomposition stages), encompassing a broad range of organic quality, we investigated how changes in litter biochemistry affected fungal growth. Plant litter were characterized by classic proximate chemical analyses (total C and N, labile C, cellulose and lignin content, C/N and lignin/N ratios) and, at molecular level, by solid-state ¹³C-CPMAS NMR. The growth of A. niger decreased during the decomposition process over all organic matter types, consistently with the well-known disappearance of this species during the early successional stages. The litter suitability as a substrate to A. niger progressively decreased during decomposition, both considering proximate parameters and C types corresponding to spectral regions, with the latter being also invariably predictive of fungal growth over the 45 substrates. A. niger growth was positively associated with the content of labile C, and with di-O-alkyl C and O-alkyl C spectral regions, but negatively with lignin content and with methoxyl C region. Our results suggest that organic matter quality may control saprotrophic fungal dynamics, at least for the tested species.

Four new species of Boletus are fully described and illustrated from central Honshu, Japan: (1) B. panniformis (Section Calopodes) produces a typically felted and scabrous pileus, bitter flesh, a finely reticulate, red stipe, and occurs in subalpine, coniferous forests; (2) B. ventricosus (Section Appendiculati) forms a usually ventricose or subbulbous stipe, yellow to greyish orange, extremely short tubes, often pluriseptate, broadly clavate to doliform caulocystidia, and occurs in lowland, mixed forests; (3) B. cepaeodoratus (Section Appendiculati) possesses a pinkish red pileus, a usually finely reticulate stipe, relatively short tubes, and occurs in lowland, mixed forest; (4) B. viscidipellis (Section Luridi) yields a hairy, viscid pileus, intensely cyanescent flesh, and occurs in lowland, mixed forests.