The biogeography and conservation of Earth's 'dark' ectomycorrhizal fungi
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F61388971%3A_____%2F25%3A00637070" target="_blank" >RIV/61388971:_____/25:00637070 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982225004269?via%3Dihub" target="_blank" >https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982225004269?via%3Dihub</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.03.079" target="_blank" >10.1016/j.cub.2025.03.079</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
The biogeography and conservation of Earth's 'dark' ectomycorrhizal fungi
Original language description
Breakthroughs in DNA sequencing have upended our understanding of fungal diversity. Only similar to 155,000 of the 2-3 million fungal species on the planet have been formally described and named, and 'dark taxa' species known only from sequences represent the vast majority of species within the fungal kingdom. The International Code of Nomenclature requires physical type specimens to officially recognize new fungal species, making it difficult to name dark taxa. This is a significant problem for conservation because, without names, species cannot be recognized for environmental and legal protection. Symbiotic ectomycorrhizal (EcM) fungi play a particularly important role in forest carbon drawdown, but at present we have little understanding of how many EcM fungal species exist, or where to prioritize research activities to survey and describe EcM fungal lineages. In this review, we use global soil metabarcoding databases (GlobalFungi and the Global Soil Mycobiome consortium) to evaluate current estimates of the total number of EcM fungal species on Earth, outline the current state of undescribed EcM dark taxa, and identify priority regions for future dark taxa exploration. The metabarcoding databases include up to 219,730 EcM fungal operational taxonomic units (OTUs) detected from almost 39,500 samples. Using Chao richness estimates corrected for extrapolating species numbers from metabarcoding datasets, we predict that the global diversity of EcM fungi could be similar to 25,500-55,500 species. Dark taxa those that do not match species-level identities account for 79-83% of OTUs. Oceania contains the highest percentage of dark taxa (87%), and Europe the lowest (78%). Priority 'darkspots' for future research occur predominantly in tropical regions, but also in selected temperate forests at both southern and northern latitudes. We propose concrete steps to reduce the prevalence of EcM darkspots, including performing targeted field surveys, barcoding fungaria voucher specimens, and developing new ways to describe and conserve fungal taxa from DNA alone.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
J<sub>imp</sub> - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
10606 - Microbiology
Result continuities
Project
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Continuities
I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace
Others
Publication year
2025
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Name of the periodical
Current Biology
ISSN
0960-9822
e-ISSN
1879-0445
Volume of the periodical
35
Issue of the periodical within the volume
11
Country of publishing house
US - UNITED STATES
Number of pages
12
Pages from-to
563-574
UT code for WoS article
001509145400026
EID of the result in the Scopus database
2-s2.0-105007425288