Laundon Davis, Cunliffe Michael
Marine Biological Association, The Laboratory, Citadel Hill, Plymouth, United Kingdom.
School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom.
Front Fungal Biol. 2021 Aug 4;2:708813. doi: 10.3389/ffunb.2021.708813. eCollection 2021.
The phylum Chytridiomycota (the "chytrids") is an early-diverging, mostly unicellular, lineage of fungi that consists of significant aquatic saprotrophs, parasites, and pathogens, and is of evolutionary interest because its members retain biological traits considered ancestral in the fungal kingdom. While the existence of aquatic chytrids has long been known, their fundamental biology has received relatively little attention. We are beginning to establish a detailed understanding of aquatic chytrid diversity and insights into their ecological functions and prominence. However, the underpinning biology governing their aquatic ecological activities and associated core processes remain largely understudied and therefore unresolved. Many biological questions are outstanding for aquatic chytrids. What are the mechanisms that control their development and life cycle? Which core processes underpin their aquatic influence? What can their biology tell us about the evolution of fungi and the wider eukaryotic tree of life? We propose that the field of aquatic chytrid ecology could be further advanced through the improved understanding of chytrid biology, including the development of model aquatic chytrids and targeted studies using culture-independent approaches.
壶菌门（“壶菌”）是真菌中一个早期分化的、大多为单细胞的谱系，包含重要的水生腐生菌、寄生虫和病原体，因其成员保留了被认为是真菌王国祖先的生物学特征而具有进化研究价值。虽然水生壶菌的存在早已为人所知，但其基础生物学受到的关注相对较少。我们开始对水生壶菌的多样性有了详细的了解，并对其生态功能和重要性有了深入认识。然而，支配其水生生态活动及相关核心过程的基础生物学仍在很大程度上未被研究，因此尚未得到解决。关于水生壶菌还有许多生物学问题有待解答。控制其发育和生命周期的机制是什么？哪些核心过程支撑着它们在水生环境中的影响？它们的生物学能告诉我们关于真菌进化以及更广泛的真核生物生命树的哪些信息？我们认为，通过更好地理解壶菌生物学，包括开发水生壶菌模型以及使用非培养方法进行针对性研究，可以进一步推动水生壶菌生态学领域的发展。
