"Traditional studies of evolution have amply demonstrated that evolution at the phenotypic level is characterized by adaptation and opportunism, irregularity in pace, and inequality of rates among lineages. In contrast, studies of molecular evolution have revealed quite different features characterized by changes that are conservative in nature, random in pattern (independent of phenotypic characters), and quite regular in pace with equal rates among diverge [sic] lineages for a given protein". (Kimura, M. 1983. The neutral theory of molecular evolution, pp. 308-309, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.)
Accepted for publication 2 November 1998Recent advances in fungal systematics are reviewed in relation to our previous studies. The usefulness of the integrated analysis of genotypic (especially 18S rRNA gene sequence comparisons) and phenotypic (especially ultrastructural and chemotaxonomic data) characters has been emphasized for the major groups and selected taxa of the fungi, and the impact to fungal systematics and evolution is discussed. Our noteworthy studies and findings are: 1) polyphyly of the chytridiomycetes and zygomycetes, 2) phylogenetic origin of the entomophthoralean fungi including Basidiobolus, 3) detection of a major new lineage "Archiascomycetes,'' comprising Taphrina, Protomyces and Saitoella, Schizosaccharomyces, and Pneumocystis, within the Ascomycota, and its phylogenetic and evolutionary significance, 4) polyphyletic origins of species in the anamorphic genus Geosmithia, and 5) phylogenetic placement of Mixia osmundae, species correctly and incorrectly assigned to the genus Taphrina, and basidiomyceotus yeasts. The newest 18S rDNA sequence-based neighbor-joining trees of the Ascomycota are demonstrated.