ABSTRACT
Mt. Carmel, 31905, Haifa, Israel 3N.G. Kholodny Institute of Botany, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
2,Tereshchenkovskaya St., Kiev, 01601, Ukraine E-mail: iv_zmitrovich@mail.ru
ABSTRACT
The problem of the origin and phylogeny of Agaricomycetes remains controversial. However, various data accumulated in recent decades provide an opportunity to reach some defi nite conclusions. Th e conclusions are: 1) Final establishment of the circumscription of the class Agaricomycetes (Basidiomycetes with dolipore septa without nanopores, with perforated, or rarely unperforated, parenthosomata), and the proof of their evolutionary advancement compared with Tremellomycetes; 2) The loss of taxonomic status of such groups as Hymenomycetes/Gasteromycetes and Aphyllophorales; 3) Th e appearance, in the course of studies of rDNA, of some “molecular concepts”, the most important of which are the rooting of Agaricomycetes within the Dacrymycetales/ Auriculariales and the basal position of taxa with unperforated parentosomes; 4) Proof of evolutionary advancement of brown-rot fungi with considerable devaluation of the type of rot as a character in taxonomy of Basidiomycetes; 5) Proof of secondary origins of corticioid and gasteroid forms. Any phylogenetic
reconstruction of Agaricomycetes should be based on the aforesaid concepts. However, some of the remaining diffi culties and contradictions in the fi eld of systematics are analyzed in the present chapter.
