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Host-specificity, host-exclusivity, and host-recurrence in saprobic fungi

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 January 2002

Dequn ZHOU
Affiliation:
Centre for Research in Fungal Diversity, Department of Ecology and Biodiversity, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong. E-mail: [email protected] Faculty of Conservation Biology, Southwest Forestry University, Kunming, Yunnan 650224, People’s Republic of China.
Kevin D. HYDE
Affiliation:
Centre for Research in Fungal Diversity, Department of Ecology and Biodiversity, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Estimates of global fungal numbers rely heavily on the ratios of unique fungi to host plants. Evidence for host-specificity, which is basic to our understanding of host to fungus ratios, is therefore explored in this review. There is considerable evidence that some endophytes, pathogens and mycorrhizal fungi are host-specific. Host-specificity however, may be an unwise term for saprobic fungi, and ‘host-exclusivity’ and ‘host-recurrence’ may be more appropriate terms. Concepts of host-specificity, host-exclusivity and host-recurrence are therefore defined and discussed. Suggestions for future work needed in order to establish host-exclusivity and host-recurrence in saprobic fungi are made.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© The British Mycological Society 2001

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Footnotes

Paper presented at the Asian Mycological Congress 2000 (AMC 2000), incorporating the 2nd Asia–Pacific Mycological Congress on Biodiversity and Biotechnology, and held at the University of Hong Kong on 9–13 July 2000.