AN INSIGHT INTO THE KINSHIPS OF THE FUNGI

The evolutionary origin of fungi is important in determining the phylogenetic relationships between fungi, animals and plants. However, determining the true relationship of fungi has been somewhat difficult owing to their simple morphology and presence of convergent characters. With the advent of newer molecular techniques, analysis of conserved protein sequences, cytochrome systems, mitochondrial and nuclear genetic material and rRNAs are being employed in elucidating phylogenetic kinships among the eukaryotes. These emerging evidences suggest that the derivation of the fungi from plants or algae would require more evolutionary changes than its derivation from protozoa, the unicellular ancestor of the animals. To gain an overview of the current state of the science, we have extensively reviewed the existing literatures and it appeared to us that fungi are more closely related to animals than to plants.