This issue of Mycological Research News features: Kelo trees: a vanishing fungal habitat; Polarized growth in fission yeast; Comparative genomics and functional elements in the yeast genome; When physics meets biology: high-resolution laser-based techiques to study plant–microbe interactions; and an Acknowledgement.

The largest molecular phylogenetic fungal tree yet to have been published is presented, based on 1551 sequences; this will be of interest to all concerned with fungal relationships, especially at family and higher levels. Hepatic mycorrhizas are described ultrastructurally and molecularly, and the relationships of the mycobionts determined. The cytology and behaviour of nuclei in tri- and tetraradiate conidia in coelomycetes is examined, and micronuclei are documented for the first time. Confocal laser scanning electron microscopy examines nuclei and ascospore formation using a methodology likely to have wide utility.

The conditions affecting the production of the siderophore rhodotorulic acid by Rhodotorula mucilaginosa have been investigated. The poisonous Clitocybe lactea produces phallatoxins, previously only known from Amanita spp., and its relationships are explored by molecular methods. Swainsonine, the cause of locoism in cattle etc. in the USA, is produced by endophytic fungi inside the plants consumed. The enyzmes produced by the lignin-degrading Mycena galopus and responsible for this activity have been investigated and identified.

The following new scientific names are introduced in this part: Cornutispora intermedia, C. pittii, and Furcaspora abieticola spp. nov.