This issue of Mycological Research News features: An online database of names and descriptions as an alternative to registration; Enzyme dispensability in Saccharomyces cerevisiae; Concern over the state of Spanish mycology; Do fungal biocontrol agents pose a threat?; Convergence of invasive growth in fungi and straminipiles; and Adhesins: cell-surface proteins of adaptive value in medically important fungi.

Eleven research papers appear in this part. The Neighbour-Sensing model of hyphal growth is used to simulate colonial growth, and β-tubulin gene sequences provide an additional perspective on basidiomycete evolution. Molecular studies address variation in Serpula lacrymans in Europe, the Mycosphaerella punctiformis complex, genetic variability in Typhula incarnata; and the placement of ‘Cephalosporium caerulens’ in Sarocladium. A third part of the series on the Hygrophoraceae in the Greater Antilles is presented, and a new species of Laboulbenia with a range of morphologies is described from Brazil.

Interconidial anastomoses between Colletotrichum species from different hosts are reported and enable comparisons to be made. Studies of fungi associated with Betula pendula shoots of diseased trees are reported, as are the effects of water-stress and washing on Metarhizium anisopliae conidia.

The following new scientific names are introduced: Hygrocybe albomarginata, H. ovinoides, H. pseudoadonis, H. viridiphylla, H. zonata, Laboulbenia richardiana, and Ramularia endophylla spp. nov.; H. mycenoides (syn. Hygrophorus mycenoides), H. papillata (syn. Hygrophorus papillatus), and H. subovina (syn. Hygrophorus subovinus) combs. nov.