Page 91 - University of Pretoria Research Review 2017

Foreword
Introduction
Fungi − the good and the bad
Pedro Crous, Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute, the Netherlands, and FABI
Although the concept of biodiversity may conjure images of beautiful animals and plants and, increasingly also, of threats to their survival because of human-induced damage to natural habitats, few would think of fungi being part of this biodiversity and essential to the health of ecosystems.
With 2.2 to 3.8 million predicted species, fungi represent one of the most speciose kingdoms on this planet. Yet, we have recognised only around 120 000 species, which have taken us more than 250 years to discover. The global community of mycologists are describing around 2 000 species a year, suggesting that it will take another 1 830 years to describe the remainder of the species.
Fungi are rarely considered to be organisms that can be threatened, or whose activities are essential to the health of ecosystems. Without fungi, plants would
not have a mycorrhizal root network to enable them
to grow in adverse environments, litter would not be degraded, and most ecological processes would cease to function. Bad fungi, however, can spoil our food and water, cause crop losses and disease (and sometimes even epidemics), and those who study fungi know them best for these negative characteristics.
What of the beneficial fungi? Yeasts play a major role in our intestines, boost our immune systems, and there are 10 times as many microbial cells in the human body as there are human cells. In the environment, fungi break down waste, maintain chemical balance, and can be used to produce biofuels, novel antibiotics or antifungals. Simply put, we all hate athlete’s foot, dandruff, and yeast infections, but none of us would wish for a life without bread, cheese, wine or beer.
Diaporthe ocoteae on pine needles, newly described by P Crous and MJ Wingfield, from leaves of Ocotea obtusa collected on Réunion Island.
It is clear fungi play a major ecological role in our lives. We must consequently capture and preserve as many
of the cultivatable species as possible; some of these likely hold keys to improve our quality of life. One such initiative is the Fungal Planet project, which aims to describe 1% of all new fungal species occurring on Earth.
The names and descriptions of all newly described species are captured in the global online database MycoBank, while the DNA data are added to inter- national initiatives such as AFToL (Assembling the Fungal Tree of Life), using the procedures and DNA protocols as outlined in IBoL (International Barcode of Life).
As part of this initiative, researchers from the University of Pretoria, together with colleagues from the Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute in the Netherlands, undertook a recent survey of microfungi on Réunion Island. Preliminary results revealed many new species, and more than 20 of these have been published to date, including three new genera and two new families. Although these species are now being screened to reveal potentially new metabolites and enzymes, one fungus, Roussoella solani, has already been identified as the causal organism of a corneal infection in a Japanese hospital patient.
Considerable interest remains in elucidating the
new molecules that these new fungi can produce. Surely, South Africa with its unique plant and animal biodiversity, will also harbour a fungal flora that could potentially hold the key to new medicine, an ideal biofuel, or improved industrial processes?
DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE
PEOPLE AND CONTEXTS
HEALTH AND WELL-BEING
PLANET AND SUSTAINABILITY
FABI, forests and fungi
Awards
Lead Researchers
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Pedro Crous