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Fungi comprise a distinct eukaryotic lineage often associated with their important role as degraders of organic substrates in the environment.  However, fungi also form well-known symbiotic association with higher plants, as mycorrhizae, or with algae as lichens. Additionally, fungi are a critical component of the environmental microbiome associated with both plants and animals. The functional role of fungi in these interactions is poorly understood. Increasingly fungi are being recognized as opportunistic pathogens of animals, including humans, and as plant pathogens, are a threat to the global supply of food.  Fungi themselves may harbour their own unique microbiome or organise the microbiome of the substrate they colonise.

This collection will feature studies of fungi in host-associated microbiomes, functional analysis of host-fungal or fungal-microbe interactions, the genetic and genomic diversity of host-associated fungi, as well as the impacts of environmental fungi in natural and manmade ecosystems. It is guest edited by Professor Corby Kistler (University of Minnesota), Dr. Ferry Hagen (Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute), Dr. David Fitzpatrick (Maynooth University), and Dr. Daniel Croll (University of Neuchâtel).

Image credit: Corby Kistler (University of Minnesota), US Department of Agriculture (public domain), and Biotec, Thailand