Diversity and Ecology of Fungi from Underexplored and Extreme Environments

Author: mycolabadmin
4/28/2025
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Summary

This editorial discusses a special collection of studies exploring fungi that thrive in extreme and challenging environments around the world, from frozen Arctic lakes to salty lagoons and polluted soils. These fungi have evolved remarkable abilities to survive harsh conditions and can even help clean up contaminated environments or support plant growth in degraded soils. Researchers are discovering previously unknown fungal species and understanding how these organisms function in ecosystems, with potential applications for cleaning pollution, improving agriculture, and biotechnology.

Background

Fungi represent one of the most diverse and ecologically important groups of organisms on Earth, yet much of their biodiversity remains unknown and unexplored. Fungi thrive in some of the most challenging environments on the planet, including naturally extreme conditions such as arid, saline, cold, or nutrient-deprived environments, as well as anthropogenically altered ecosystems. Extremotolerant and extremophilic fungi represent an emerging research field in mycology with relevance to both applied sciences and taxonomic diversity.

Objective

This editorial summarizes a Special Issue comprising nine research articles and one review contributing to the growing field of extremotolerant and extremophilic fungi. The purpose is to briefly summarize the compiled contributions and provide broader interpretive context, referencing past research and anticipating future research directions in fungal ecology and biotechnology.

Results

The compilation reveals fungal diversity and adaptations across multiple extreme environments including anthropogenically altered sites, hypersaline lagoons, rock habitats, Arctic and Antarctic lakes, and seagrass ecosystems. Studies document dark septate endophytes enhancing plant stress resistance, metallotolerant black fungi with biosorption capacity, novel fungal taxa, and previously unrecognized roles of fungi in anaerobic ecosystems.

Conclusion

Research on extremophilic and extremotolerant fungi is poised to advance through environmental sequencing, single-cell genomics, and metabolomics. Future interdisciplinary approaches integrating ecology, phylogenetics, and materials science will be crucial for understanding fungal survival mechanisms and developing biotechnological innovations while maintaining grounding in ecological knowledge.

Published in:Journal of Fungi (Basel),
Study Type:Editorial Review,
Source: PMID: 40422677, DOI: 10.3390/jof11050343