Background:

In the ectomycorrhizal fungal genomes we can found the fingerprints of the biological interactions that have transformed them and conferred their physiological and ecological traits.

Objectives:

To analyze the main functional genomic and evolutionary patterns related to the ectomycorrhizal lifestyle.

Methods:

We reviewed bibliography on ectomycorrhizal fungi evolutionary history, diversification, functional genomics and comparative genomics.

Results and conclusions:

Ectomycorrhizal fungi evolved independently from diverse saprotrophic ancestors with two diversification peaks, one in the Jurassic-Cretaceous transition and the second since the Paleocene. The ectomycorrhizal lifestyle generated diversification in many species of the genera that adopted it. The multiple and independent loss of plant cell wall degrading enzymes seems to be the only common evolutionary patter among these lineages. In contrast, the reinvention of communication with the plant host, through the development of new orphan genes is a trait present just in some lineages. Some gene families have increased in size through transposons activity. Several studies show an evolutionary and functional mosaic developed independently en these fungidependent evolution. The widespread of genomic and transcriptomic is necessary to understand the effect environmental and biological pressures on fungal evolution and function.