Although
morphology of the mushroom or
fruit body (basidiocarp) was the basis of early
classification of the Agaricomycetes,[8] this is no longer the case. As an example, the distinction between the Gasteromycetes (including
puffballs) and Agaricomycetes (most other
agaric mushrooms) is no longer recognized as a natural one—various puffball species have apparently evolved independently from agaricomycete fungi. However, most mushroom guide books still group the puffballs or gasteroid forms separate from other mushrooms because the older
Friesian classification is still convenient for categorizing fruit body forms. Similarly, modern classifications divide the gasteroid order
Lycoperdales between
Agaricales and
Phallales.
Features
All members of the class produce
basidiocarps which range in size from tiny cups a few millimeters across to a giant
polypore (Phellinus ellipsoideus) greater than several meters across and weigh up to 500 kilograms (1,100 lb).[9] The group also includes what are arguably the largest and oldest individual organisms on earth: the
mycelium of one individual Armillaria gallica has been estimated to extend over 15 hectares (37 acres) with a mass of 10,000 kilograms (22,000 pounds) and an age of 1,500 years.[10]
Ecology
Nearly all species are terrestrial (a few are aquatic), occurring in a wide range of environments where most function as decayers, especially of wood. However, some species are
pathogenic or
parasitic, and yet others are
symbiotic (i.e.,
mutualistic), these including the important
ectomycorrhizal symbionts of forest trees. General discussions on the forms and
life cycles of these fungi are developed in the article on
mushrooms, in the treatments of the various
orders (links in table at right), and in individual species accounts.
Evolution
A study of 5,284 species with a backbone phylogeny based on 104 genomes[11] has suggested the following dates of evolution:
Agaricomycetidae ~185 million years ago (174 million years ago–192 million years ago)
Cantharellales 184 million years ago (144 million years ago–261 million years ago) Agaricales173 million years ago (160 million years ago-182 million years ago) Hymenochaetales167 million years ago (130 million years ago–180 million years ago) Boletales142 million years ago (133 million years ago–153 million years ago)
Fossil record
The fruit bodies of Agaricomycetes are extremely rare in the
fossil record, and the class does not yet pre-date the
Early Cretaceous (146–100
Ma).[12] The oldest Agaricomycetes fossil, dating from the lower Cretaceous (130–125 Ma) is Quatsinoporites. It is a fragment of a
poroid fruit body with features that suggest it could be a member of the family
Hymenochaetaceae.[13] Based on
molecular clock analysis, the Agaricomycetes are estimated to be about 290 million years old.[14]
^Doweld A. (2001). Prosyllabus Tracheophytorum, Tentamen systematis plantarum vascularium (Tracheophyta) [An attempted system of the vascular plants]. Moscow, Russia: GEOS. pp. 1–111.
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^Hibbett DS, Thorn RG (2001). McLaughlin DJ, et al. (eds.). The Mycota, Vol. VII. Part B., Systematics and Evolution. Berlin, Germany: Springer-Verlag. pp. 121–168.
^Hodkinson BP, Moncada B, Lücking R (2014). "Lepidostromatales, a new order of lichenized fungi (Basidiomycota, Agaricomycetes), with two new genera, Ertzia and Sulzbacheromyces, and one new species, Lepidostroma winklerianum". Fungal Diversity. 64 (1): 165–179.
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^Fries EM (1874).
Hymenomycetes Europaei (in Latin). Uppsala: Typis Descripsit Ed. Berling. p. 1.
^Varga, Torda; Krizsán, Krisztina; Földi, Csenge; Dima, Bálint; Sánchez-García, Marisol; Sánchez-Ramírez, Santiago; Szöllősi, Gergely J.; Szarkándi, János G.; Papp, Viktor; Albert, László; Andreopoulos, William; Angelini, Claudio; Antonín, Vladimír; Barry, Kerrie W.; Bougher, Neale L. (2019-03-18).
"Megaphylogeny resolves global patterns of mushroom evolution". Nature Ecology & Evolution. 3 (4). Other authors: Peter Buchanan, Bart Buyck, Viktória Bense, Pam Catcheside, Mansi Chovatia, Jerry Cooper, Wolfgang Dämon, Dennis Desjardin, Péter Finy, József Geml, Sajeet Haridas, Karen Hughes, Alfredo Justo, Dariusz Karasiński, Ivona Kautmanova, Brigitta Kiss, Sándor Kocsubé, Heikki Kotiranta, Kurt M. LaButti, Bernardo E. Lechner, Kare Liimatainen, Anna Lipzen, Zoltán Lukács, Sirma Mihaltcheva, Louis N. Morgado, Tuula Niskanen, Machiel E. Noordeloos, Robin A. Ohm, Beatriz Ortiz-Santana, Clark Ovrebo, Nikolett Rácz, Robert Riley, Anton Savchenko, Anton Shiryaev, Karl Soop, Viacheslav Spirin, Csilla Szebenyi, Michal Tomšovský, Rodham E. Tulloss, Jessie Uehling, Igor V. Grigoriev, Csaba Vágvölgyi, Tamás Papp, Francis M. Martin, Otto Miettinen, David S. Hibbett & László G. Nagy: 668–678.
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^Smith, S.Y.; Currah, R.S.; Stockey, R.A. (2004). "Cretaceous and Eocene poroid hymenophores from Vancouver Island, British Columbia". Mycologia. 96 (1): 180–186.
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^Hibbett D, Bauer R, Binder M, Giachini AJ, Hosaka K, Justo A, Larsson E, Larsson K-H, Lawrey JD, Miettinen O, Nagy LG, Nilsson RH, Weiss M, Thorn RG (2014).
"Agaricomycetes". In McLaughlin DJ, Spatafora JW (eds.).
Systematics and Evolution. The Mycota: A Comprehensive Treatise on Fungi as Experimental Systems for Basic and Applied Research. Vol. 7A (2nd ed.). Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag. pp. 373–429.
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