Some like it hot, some not - Tropical and arctic mushrooms

Fungi are of pivotal importance for terrestrial ecosystems. They occur globally and show extremely high species diversities. In this review, we compiled information about the adaptability of pileate basidiomycetes by illustrating their habits in contrasting biomes, the arctic regions and tropical lowland rainforests. Mushrooms are faced with differing stress factors and levels in the two ecozones. They fight such challenges by using, by and large, similar physiological and morphological toolkits. They make them fit for extreme environmental conditions, by expressing traits according to biome characteristics. This way, fungal assemblages are formed and pheno- and genotypic plasticity is capitalised. Still, many questions remain open and need further clarification, such as trade-offs between thermal protection and predator defence, prevailing dispersal modes in the main ecozones, interactions with animals and the mechanisms that create genetic plasticity.