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Review
. 2021 Dec 27;13(1):1-31.
doi: 10.1080/21501203.2021.2002452. eCollection 2022.

Rock-inhabiting fungi: terminology, diversity, evolution and adaptation mechanisms

Bingjie Liu  1   2 , Rong Fu  1   2 , Bing Wu  1 , Xingzhong Liu  3 , Meichun Xiang  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Rock-inhabiting fungi: terminology, diversity, evolution and adaptation mechanisms

Bingjie Liu et al. Mycology. .

Abstract

Rock-inhabiting fungi (RIF) constitute an ecological group associated with terrestrial rocks. This association is generally restricted to the persistent colonisation of rocks and peculiar morphological features based on melanisation and slow growth, which endow RIF with significance in eukaryotic biology, special status in ecology, and exotic potential in biotechnology. There is a need to achieve a better understanding of the hidden biodiversity, antistress biology, origin and convergent evolution of RIF, which will facilitate cultural relic preservation, exploitation of the biogeochemical cycle of rock elements and biotechnology applications. This review focuses on summarising the current knowledge of rock-inhabiting fungi, with particular reference to terminology, biodiversity and geographic distribution, origin and evolution, and stress adaptation mechanisms. We especially teased out the definition through summing up the terms related to rock-inhabting fungi, and also provided a checklist of rock-inhabiting fungal taxa recorded following updated classification schemes.

Keywords: Fungi; adaption mechanisms; lithophilic fungi; lithotolerant fungi; rock-inhabiting fungi; species diversity.

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Conflict of interest statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Growth rate comparison on culture plates between litholithic fungi and lithotolerant fungi of rock-inhabiting fungi. Values of plots represents growth rates (mm. per week) of published RIF species on culture plates. Significant difference between green and Orange plots represents the distinction between typical and nontypical RIF.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Distribution of rock-inhabiting fungi. Size of blue circles represents the genus number of rock-inhabiting fungi.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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