Researchers with theJGI’s Fungal and Algal Science Program and JGI users have assembled one of the world’s most comprehensive collections of fungal genomes. A sweeping analysis published in Nature Reviews Microbiology of nearly 2,000 of these genomes reveals just how much we still have to discover about Earth’s fungal kingdom. The manuscript reviews about 200 publications linking evolutionary history and innovations across different classes of fungi.

The fungal kingdom presents researchers with a sampling puzzle of extraordinary complexity. Beyond the sheer number of undiscovered species lies an even thornier problem: The genomes already sequenced don’t adequately capture the vast nature of fungal diversity.

Examining databases like MycoCosm, the JGI’s online fungal genomics resource platform, reveals a stark imbalance. More recently evolved fungi within Dikarya, which include familiar mushrooms and yeasts, outnumber their ancient relatives by nearly 10 to one in sequenced collections. Yet the early-diverging fungi actually comprise most of the diversity within the fungal kingdom, meaning they also likely harbor the most evolutionary innovations. Some entire lineages have only a single genome representative, while others remain completely unsampled.