Soil and water analyses often reveal a significant number of fungal taxa that cannot be classified into any known taxonomic or functional groups. These mysterious organisms,referred to as ‘dark taxa’,have either been assigned alphanumeric codes or have gone completely unnoticed.
Recent advancements in long-read sequencing techniques have generated a wealth of high-quality rRNA marker gene data for eukaryotic organisms. Though, many of these taxa remain unidentified at the highest taxonomic levels, such as phylum and kingdom.
A team led by Prof Leho Tedersoo from the University of Tartu in Estonia has now utilized the EUKARYOME long-read database to conduct a extensive analysis. their findings revealed that a large portion of these unknown eukaryotes belong to deep, previously undescribed fungal lineages.
through innovative taxonomy methods and rigorous phylogenetic analyses, the researchers were able to describe 30 novel fungal lineages ranging from order to phylum levels.this includes the type species for each group. The results were published in the open-access journal MycoKeys.
The names for these new taxa were developed and voted on by all co-authors, with each name referencing its type locality using native language stems (amerindian, Sámi, Estonian). Additionally, the authors proposed two new taxonomic terms: ”nucleotype” and “legitype”, which refer to DNA samples and sequences derived from the holotype, respectively. These terms can be used in certain circumstances, such as when the holotype is lost.
The taxonomic approach developed by Tedersoo et al. provides a means of describing and communicating unseen microeukaryotic taxa that may not be able to be cultured.
Original source
Tedersoo L, Hosseyni Moghadam MS, Panksep K, Prins V, Anslan S, Mikryukov V, Bahram M, Abarenkov K, Kõljalg U,
Esmaeilzadeh-Salestani K,
Pawłowska J,
Wurzbacher C,
Ding Y,
Alkahtani SH,
Nilsson RH (2025) Thirty novel fungal lineages: formal description based on environmental samples and DNA.
MycoKeys 124: 1-121.
https://doi.org/10.3897/mycokeys.124.161674
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This research is revolutionizing our understanding of fungal diversity and evolution!