Genomics of the filamentous fungi – moving from the shadow of the bakers yeast

Fungi have now well and truly entered the genomic age. We currently know the complete DNA sequence for 18 fungal species and many more fungal genome sequencing projects are in progress. Whilst yeasts dominated the early genomic years, recently there has been a dramatic increase in filamentous fungal genome projects. The implications of this wealth of genetic information for mycologists worldwide is immense. In this review we summarise the background to fungal genome projects with an emphasis on the filamentous fungi. We discuss efforts to determine gene function and to compare genomes from different species. Since this is such a fast-moving field, useful web sites are listed that will enable the reader to keep up to date with developments.