This issue of Mycological Research News features: In this issue; A century of rhizosphere research: fungal interactions with plant's hidden half; Two major changes in fungal nomenclature enacted in Vienna; UNITE: molecular identification of ectomycorrhizal fungi; and Sex and natural selection in yeast populations.

A review article details the 1244 descriptions of ectomycorrhizal fungi published since 1961, covering 814 morphotypes. Seven research papers are included in this part. The first addresses ectomycorrhizal mycobionts of Pisonia grandis in Australia.

Five focus on the characterization of ophiostomatoid fungi, combining morphological and molecular approaches: optional mitochondrial introns/insertions are analyzed in the Ophiostoma ulmi s. lat. complex, focussing on three genes (rns, rnl and cox1). A new Ophiostoma species is described from oak in Europe which has a Sporothrix anamorph. The Ceratocystis polonica complex is found to contain three species. A re-appraisal of the Leptographium lundbergii complex shows that also to comprise three species. The Leptographium species associated with the mountain pine beetle and a devastating lodgepole pine disease is described as new.

Finally, the manganese superoxide dismutases in Phytophthora nicotianae have been analysed and compared with those in other members of the genus.

The following new scientific names are introduced: Ceratocystis fujiensis, Hyalorhinocladiella pinicola, Leptographium longiclavatum, and Ophiostoma dentifidum spp. nov.