High-throughput virome analyses with various fungi, from cultured or uncultured sources, have led to the discovery of diverse viruses with unique genome structures and even neo-lifestyles. Examples in the former category include splipalmiviruses and ambiviruses. Splipalmiviruses, related to yeast narnaviruses, have multiple positive-sense (+) single-stranded (ss) RNA genomic segments that separately encode the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase motifs, the hallmark of RNA viruses (members of the kingdom Orthornavirae). Ambiviruses appear to have an undivided ssRNA genome of 3∼5 kb with two large open reading frames (ORFs) separated by intergenic regions. Another narna-like virus group has two fully overlapping ORFs on both strands of a genomic segment that span more than 90% of the genome size. New virus lifestyles exhibited by mycoviruses include the yado-kari/yado-nushi nature characterized by the partnership between the (+)ssRNA yadokarivirus and an unrelated dsRNA virus (donor of the capsid for the former) and the hadaka nature of capsidless 10–11 segmented (+)ssRNA accessible by RNase in infected mycelial homogenates. Furthermore, dsRNA polymycoviruses with phylogenetic affinity to (+)ssRNA animal caliciviruses have been shown to be infectious as dsRNA–protein complexes or deproteinized naked dsRNA. Many previous phylogenetic gaps have been filled by recently discovered fungal and other viruses, which haveprovided interesting evolutionary insights. Phylogenetic analyses and the discovery of natural and experimental cross-kingdom infections suggest that horizontal virus transfer may have occurred and continue to occur between fungi and other kingdoms.

Fungal endophytes were collected from 168 Pinus halepensis trees sampled in 55 Spanish stands. In total, 229 endophytic isolates were grouped into 92 morphotypes according to their mycelium features. Thus, twigs enclosed 63.76% of the total endophyte isolates and needles 36.24%. Likewise, twig samples also yielded a higher endophyte species richness. Analysis of ITS rDNA region generated 38 different Ascomycota taxa and confirmed the endophytic stage of several pathogens previously associated with the Pinus halepensis decline in Spain. Naemacyclus minor, Brunchorstia pinea, Lophodermium pinastri, Phomopsis sp., Diplodia pinea, Pestalotiopsis besseyi and Truncatella angustata were isolated. Sequencing of LSU rDNA region verified the 38 taxa and contributed to infer their phylogenic relatedness using the Neighbour-Joining method. In the bootstrap consensus tree five classes were observed. Dothideomycetes resulted to be the dominant class because of its high isolation frequency (52.4%) and richest species composition (39.5%). On the contrary, class Eurotiomycetes was the least abundant (3.5%) and along with class Pezizomycetes harboured the lowest species richness (7.9%). Class Sordariomycetes and Leotiomycetes had intermediate abundance and species composition percentages. This study represents the first work concerning the taxonomy of the fungal endophytic community of the Mediterranean host species Pinus halepensis using molecular tools. The data provided here may help to establish the cause of Pinus halepensis decline.

Hymenoscyphus fraxineus is an invasive fungal species causing the most serious disease of ashes (Fraxinus spp.) in Europe—ash dieback. The biology of this fungus is not totally elucidated, neither its relation to the saprophytic species Hymenoscyphus albidus, native in Europe. Our study is focused on the description of seasonal spore dispersal of both fungi and its relation to meteorological conditions, which is needed for more precise and effective control of the disease. For this experiment one long time infected mixed forest in the SE Czech Republic was chosen. A seven-day automatic volumetric spore trap and a weather station were installed to continuously sample the aerospora from April to October 2014. In seven periods a rotating arm spore trap was also used to obtain 48-h air samples to compare the efficiency of these two types of air samplers. Air samples were evaluated solely by qPCR with a very low detection limit. Results show co-occurrence of inoculum of both fungi throughout the entire sampling period with peak levels in August. The origin of the inoculum sampled in the periods without apothecia is discussed. Air-inoculum occurrence of both fungi is significantly correlated with each other, suggesting their coexistence in this forest.