Chytrids (phylum Chytridiomycota ) are zoosporic fungi that play key roles as parasites of aquatic microorganisms, yet they are understudied and genomic resources for algal-infecting chytrids remain scarce. Here, we present the first comparative genomic analysis of multiple isolates of a single chytrid species (order Rhizophydiales ) infecting the cyanobacterium Planktothrix agardhii . Isolates were collected from Sandusky Bay...

Aquatic fungi play an important role in the material cycling, yet the factors structuring the spatial distribution of aquatic fungal communities remain poorly understood. In this study, we investigated fungal community composition across 50 reservoirs in Japan using DNA metabarcoding. Chytridiomycota (chytrids) dominated fungal communities in many reservoirs and constituted a core component of fungal assemblage. Notably, diato...

Stephanodiscus binderanus is a bloom‐forming diatom abundant in winter and persisting into spring in the Laurentian Great Lakes. Climate change impacts these blooms by altering ice cover, turbidity, light penetration, and water temperature. Fungal parasites, especially Chytridiomycota , can suppress phytoplankton growth and alter bloom succession. To address the effects of both biotic and abiotic factors on S. binderanus in th...

Recent molecular surveys revealed an unexpected diversity of mycoplankton in lakes and oceans. The early diverging fungal lineages are known to be prominent parasites of phytoplankton. However, due to missing fungal reference data, their identity and ecology remain mostly unknown. To overcome this problem, we combined single‐spore‐based DNA barcoding during one sampling season of the eutrophic Lake Inba (Japan), which is domin...

Summary Chytridiomycota, often referred to as chytrids, can be virulent parasites with the potential to inflict mass mortalities on hosts, causing e.g. changes in phytoplankton size distributions and succession, and the delay or suppression of bloom events. Molecular environmental surveys have revealed an unexpectedly large diversity of chytrids across a wide range of aquatic ecosystems worldwide. As a result, scientific inter...