Protocol of the study: Multilevel community-based mental health intervention to address structural inequities and adverse disparate consequences of COVID-19 pandemic on Latinx Immigrants and African refugees.

The NIMH-funded Multilevel Community-Based Mental Health Intervention to Address Structural Inequities and Adverse Disparate Consequences of COVID-19 Pandemic on Latinx Immigrants and African Refugees study aims to advance the science of multilevel interventions to reduce the disparate, adverse mental health, behavioral, and socioeconomic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic that are a result of complex interactions between underlying structural inequities and barriers to health care. The study tests three nested levels of intervention: 1) an efficacious 4-month advocacy and mutual learning model (Refugee and Immigrant Well-being Project, RIWP); 2) engagement with community-based organizations (CBOs); and 3) structural policy changes enacted in response to the pandemic. This community-based participatory research (CBPR) study builds on long-standing collaboration with five CBOs. By including 240 Latinx immigrants and 60 African refugees recruited from CBO partners who are randomly assigned to treatment-as-usual CBO involvement or the RIWP intervention and a comparison group comprised of a random sample of 300 Latinx immigrants, this mixed methods longitudinal waitlist control group design study with seven time points over 36 months tests the effectiveness of the RIWP intervention and engagement with CBOs to reduce psychological distress, daily stressors, and economic precarity and increase protective factors (social support, access to resources, English proficiency, cultural connectedness). The study also tests the ability of the RIWP intervention and engagement with CBOs to increase access to the direct benefits of structural interventions. This paper reports on the theoretical basis, design, qualitative and quantitative analysis plan, and power for the study.

Measuring culturally and contextually specific distress among Afghan, Iraqi, and Great Lakes African refugees.

Culturally and contextually valid measurement of psychological distress is critical, given the increasing numbers of forcibly displaced people and transnational migration. This study replicates an inductive process that elicited culturally specific expressions, understandings, and idioms of distress among Afghans to develop culturally specific measures of distress for Great Lakes Africans and Iraqis and expands this methodology to include a focus on the contexts of refugees resettled in the United States. To create the measures, we adapted Miller et al.'s (2006) model for the Afghan Symptom Checklist (ASCL) and conducted 18 semistructured qualitative interviews that attended to refugees' multiple settings; the impact of potentially traumatic events initially and postresettlement; and the experiences and impact of resettlement stressors. We tested the newly developed measures and existing ASCL with 280 recently resettled refugees (< 3 years) from Afghanistan, the Great Lakes region of Africa, and Iraq to assess factor structure, reliability, and construct validity. We successfully replicated and adapted a process for creating culturally specific measures of distress to create reliable and valid scales that consider culturally and contextually specific distress among several groups of forcibly displaced people. Our results highlight the salience of individuals' social contexts and how they are manifested as idioms of distress, bringing together two key areas of research: the social construction of mental health and social determinants of mental health. These findings have implications for improving measurement of psychological distress and for developing multilevel interventions that are culturally resonant and address factors beyond the individual level. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Predictors of mental health outcomes of three refugee groups in an advocacy-based intervention: A precision medicine perspective.

OBJECTIVE: Precision medicine is an area with great potential for mental health, but has made limited gains prognostically in predicting effective treatments. For refugees exposed to violence, culture may be a crucial factor in predicting treatment outcomes. METHOD: For this study, 290 participants from three regions (Afghanistan, the Great Lakes region of Africa, and Iraq and Syria) participated in a randomized controlled trial of an advocacy-based intervention. Emotional distress symptoms were measured prior to intervention, midintervention (3 months), postintervention (6 months), and follow-up (6 months after the end of intervention). Number of traumatic events, resource access, social support, and English proficiency were tested for potential predictive effects on intervention outcome. RESULTS: Multilevel generalized linear models revealed that Afghans' (B = -0.259, SE = 0.108, p = .013), and Great Lakes Africans' (B = -0.116, SE = 0.057, p = .042) emotional distress symptoms improved as a function of the intervention, while Iraqis and Syrians showed no intervention effects. For Afghans, English proficiency (B = -0.453, SE = 0.157, p < .01) and social support (B = -0.179, SE = 0.086, p = .037) were most strongly correlated to emotional distress, while for Africans, resource access (B = -0.483, SE = 0.082, p < .001) and social support (B = -0.100, SE = 0.048, p = .040) were the strongest predictors of emotional distress. CONCLUSIONS: Response to advocacy-based interventions and active ingredients may be influenced by culture; findings have implications for refugees and precision medicine. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Persistence of the association between mental health and resource access: A longitudinal reciprocal model in a diverse refugee sample.

Stress associated with resource deprivation is an active social determinant of mental health. However, mixed findings around the strength of this association and its persistence over time obscure optimal interventions to improve mental health in forcibly displaced populations. A reciprocal model was analyzed between resource access and measures of depression, anxiety and posttraumatic stress (PTSD) symptoms at three different assessments conducted 6 months apart (Time [T] 1, T2, and T3). Participants included resettled refugees (N = 290) from three geocultural regions (i.e., Afghanistan, the Great Lakes Region of Africa, and Iraq/Syria). The results showed that although limited resource access at T1 was related to depressive and anxiety symptoms, B = 0.26, SE = 0.16, p = .023, r2 = 0.55; posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, B = 0.20, SE = 0.10, p < .001, r2 = .56; and culturally specific depression and anxiety at T2, B = 0.22, SE = 0.16, p < .001, r2 = 0.65, these were not reciprocally related to resource access at T3. The results help clarify the strength and direction of effects between resource deprivation and depression, anxiety , and PTSD sympotms over time. Although resource deprivation is predictive of depression, anxiety, and PTSD symptoms among recently resettled refugees, the effect may not persist in the long term. These findings have critical implications, including the urgency of ensuring initial access to resources for resettled refugees to stave off the development of depression, anxiety and PTSD symptoms, as delaying immediate resource access may result in the development of chronic, hard-to-treat mental health disorders.

Sexual Assaults, Bad Hookups, and Bad Dates: Comparisons of the Contextual Features Among College Women's Hypothetical and Real-Life Sexual and Dating Experiences.

Two hundred forty-seven (N = 247) undergraduate women at a medium-sized, Southwestern university provided written descriptions of a hypothetical sexual assault (SA). Women with a prior history of SA also described their actual SA experiences; women without a SA history provided a written description of a prior bad date or hookup. The contextual features of SA scripts were compared to those of actual SA experiences. Several characteristics of a stereotypical or "blitz rape" (e.g., physical force by a stranger) were more likely to be included in SA scripts relative to women's actual SA experiences. Victimized women were also more likely to include verbal coercion, a hangout/hookup context, and previous consensual kissing in their SA experiences, in comparison to their SA scripts. The contextual features of SA experiences were also compared to the contextual features of bad dates or bad hookups. SA experiences, relative to bad dates, were more likely to include alcohol use, physical and verbal coercion by the perpetrator, and passive resistance. SA experiences, relative to bad hookups, were more likely to include physical and verbal coercion by the perpetrator, and knowing the man for less than 1 week. Victimized participants SA experiences were also found to be less likely to include previous consensual kissing and consensual intercourse in comparison to bad hookup experiences of nonvictimized women. Overall, there was considerable overlap between the contextual features present across all experiences. The lack of differentiation among these events may explain why women experience difficulty acknowledging whether they have experienced SA.

A clinical science guide for reviewing the cross-cultural rigor of assessments in an alcohol training clinic.

A standard component of service delivery in alcohol treatment clinics is evidence-based assessment (EBA). Although EBA is essential for selecting appropriate treatment modalities for alcohol use and associated problems, there are limitations in existing EBAs concerning evidence of cultural equivalence and utility among individuals seeking alcohol treatment. However, training in EBA, addictions, and clinical applications with diverse populations all are gaps in clinical training in doctoral programs in clinical psychology. The present work used the clinical science model to review the psychometric properties, cross-cultural utility, and measurement invariance of measures in an assessment battery used in an alcohol treatment training clinic. This article describes the results of that review, recommendations for retaining or replacing common assessment measures used in alcohol treatment clinics, and recommendations for alcohol treatment clinics interested in engaging in similar processes. Findings suggested that more research is needed to evaluate the psychometric properties of EBAs utilized in an alcohol treatment assessment battery, particularly among American Indian and Alaska Native people, and to test measurement invariance across race/ethnicity and other identity groups in alcohol treatment-seeking populations. Overall, routine reviews of cultural relevance are needed in clinical settings to stay current with the emerging literature. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Social Vulnerabilities and Spatial Access to Primary Healthcare through Car and Public Transportation System in the Albuquerque, NM, Metropolitan Area: Assessing Disparities through GIS and Multilevel Modeling.

Primary healthcare (PHC) is a keystone component of population health. However, inequities in public transportation access hinder equitable usage of PHC services by minoritized populations. Using the multimodal enhanced 2-step floating catchment area method and data in 2018 and 2019 for spatial access to PHC providers (n = 1166) and social vulnerability markers through census block (n = 543) and tract data (n = 226), a generalized linear mixed-effect model (GLMEM) was constructed to test the effects of sociodemographic and community area correlates on both car and bus transit spatial access to PHC in the Albuquerque, New Mexico (NM) metropolitan area. Results for bus spatial access to PHC showed lower access for Hispanics (B = - 0.097 ± 0.029 [- 0.154, - 0.040]) and non-Hispanic Whites (B = - 0.106 ± 0.032 [- 0.169, - 0.043]) and a positive association between single-family households and bus spatial access (B = 1.573 ± 0.349 [0.866, 2.261]). Greater disability vulnerability (B = - 0.569 ± 0.173 [- 0.919, - 0.259]) and language vulnerability (B = - 0.569 ± 0.173 [- 0.919, - 0.259]) were associated with decreased bus spatial access. For car spatial access to PHC, greater SES vulnerability (B = - 0.338 ± 0.021 [- 1.568, -0.143]), disability (B = - 0.721 ± .092 [- 0.862, - 0.50 9]), and language vulnerability (B = - 0.686 ± 0.172 [- 1.044, - 0.362]) were associated with less car spatial access. Results indicate a disproportionate burden of low PHC access among disadvantaged population groups who rely heavily on public transportation. These results necessitate targeted interventions to reduce these disparities in access to PHC.

Occasions of Alcohol and Cannabis Use and Associated Risk for Sexual Assault Among College Women With Higher Sexual Risk Alcohol Expectancies.

OBJECTIVE: College women report high rates of sexual assault. Research focused on women's risk factors for sexual assault remains necessary to assist women in reducing their risk. Previous work has shown alcohol use and cannabis use to be associated with sexual assault. The current study examined whether individual difference variables moderated women's risk for sexual assault during occasions of alcohol use and cannabis use using ecological momentary assessment (EMA). METHOD: Participants were 18- to 24-year-old first-year undergraduate women (N = 101) who were unmarried and interested in dating men, consumed three or more alcoholic drinks on one occasion in the month before baseline, and engaged in sexual intercourse at least once. Baseline individual difference variables included sex-related alcohol expectancies, alcohol problems, decision skills, and sexual attitudes. EMA reports, collected three times per day over 42 days, included items regarding alcohol and cannabis use and sexual assault experiences. RESULTS: Among women who experienced sexual assault during the EMA period (n = 40), those with higher sexual risk expectancies had a higher probability of sexual assault during occasions when they were using alcohol or cannabis. CONCLUSIONS: Several modifiable risk factors for sexual assault and individual differences factors may exacerbate risk. Ecological momentary interventions may be useful to reduce sexual assault risk for women with high sexual risk expectancies who use alcohol or cannabis.

Geocultural variation in correlates of psychological distress among refugees resettled in the United States.

Attention to cultural variability in mental health symptoms could inform intervention targets; however, this is currently a neglected area of study. This study examined whether the associations between common mental health disorder (CMD) symptoms and predictors of CMDs varied cross-culturally. Participants were 290 refugees from three geocultural regions (Afghanistan, Great Lakes region of Africa, and Iraq and Syria) who recently resettled in the United States and completed assessments of CMD symptoms and predictors. Multilevel generalized linear modeling was used to examine the interactions between correlates of depressive, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and each of the three cultural reference groups. Relative to refugees from other regions, Iraqi and Syrian participants demonstrated stronger associations between the number of reported traumatic experiences and both depressive, B = 0.01, SE = .003, p = .003, and anxiety symptoms, B = 0.01, SE = .003, p < .001; Afghan participants showed a stronger association between physical quality of life and PTSD symptoms, B = 0.02, SE = .011, p = .037; and African participants demonstrated stronger associations between gender and symptoms of all three CMDs, Bs = 0.11-.020, SEs = .04-.06, ps = .005-.008, and weaker associations between traumatic event exposure and CMD symptoms, Bs = -0.01--0.02, SEs = .003-.006, ps = .000-.002. CMD symptoms likely present differently across cultures, with various predictors more salient depending on cultural backgrounds and differential experiences that vary based on context. These findings have implications for cross-cultural assessment research and mental health.

Occasions of Alcohol and Cannabis Use and Associated Risk for Sexual Assault among College Women with Higher Sexual Risk Alcohol Expectancies.

OBJECTIVE: College women report high rates of sexual assault (SA). Research focused on women's risk factors for SA remains necessary to assist women in reducing their risk. Previous work has shown alcohol and cannabis use to be associated with SA. The current study examined whether individual difference variables moderated women's risk for SA during occasions of alcohol and cannabis use using ecological momentary assessment (EMA). METHOD: Participants were 18-24-year-old first-year undergraduate women (N=101), who were unmarried and interested in dating men, consumed three or more alcoholic drinks on one occasion in the month before baseline, and engaged in sexual intercourse at least once. Baseline individual difference variables included sex-related alcohol expectancies, alcohol problems, decision skills, and sexual attitudes. EMA reports, collected three times per day over 42 days, included items regarding alcohol and cannabis use and SA experiences. RESULTS: Among women who experienced SA during the EMA period (n=40), those with higher sexual risk expectancies had a higher probability of SA during occasions when they were using alcohol or cannabis. CONCLUSIONS: Several modifiable risk factors for SA and individual differences factors may exacerbate risk. Ecological momentary interventions may be useful to reduce SA risk for women with high sexual risk expectancies who use alcohol or cannabis.

Measurement Invariance of the Sexual Assault Script Scale (SASS): An Examination Among Hispanic and Non-Hispanic White College Women.

Rates of sexual victimization have remained steady over several decades, and preventative interventions to reduce men's sexually aggressive behavior have been largely ineffective. As such, research has endeavored to find novel approaches to identify women at increased risk for sexual victimization. Sexual assault scripts, or "cognitive models" that women adhere to that guide their beliefs about sexual assault are posited to influence their victimization risk. Prior studies on sexual assault scripts primarily have been qualitative in nature; however, recent work yielded a 27-item measure of putative risk for sexual victimization called the Sexual Assault Script Scale (SASS). The SASS has four subscales called Stereotypical Assault Scripts, Acquaintance Assault Scripts, Assault Resistance Scripts, and Date/Friend Assault Scripts, which were found in prior work to be internally consistent and associated with putative risk factors for sexual victimization. The focus of the current study was to test the measurement invariance of the SASS among Hispanic and non-Hispanic White college women who were recruited in the prior study. Four hundred sixty-nine (N = 469) Hispanic and 415 non-Hispanic White US undergraduate heterosexual or bisexual women from a Southwestern university in the United States completed the SASS. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) replicated the prior four-factor model with an acceptable fit to the data, and tests of measurement invariance revealed the SASS to be invariant across Hispanic and non-Hispanic White college women, suggesting that the SASS is measuring a similar construct in these groups.

Laboulbeniomycetes: Intimate Fungal Associates of Arthropods.

Arthropod-fungus interactions involving the Laboulbeniomycetes have been pondered for several hundred years. Early studies of Laboulbeniomycetes faced several uncertainties. Were they parasitic worms, red algal relatives, or fungi? If they were fungi, to which group did they belong? What was the nature of their interactions with their arthropod hosts? The historical misperceptions resulted from the extraordinary morphological features of these oddly constructed ectoparasitic fungi. More recently, molecular phylogenetic studies, in combination with a better understanding of life histories, have clearly placed these fungi among filamentous Ascomycota (subphylum Pezizomycotina). Species discovery and research on the classification of the group continue today as arthropods, and especially insects, are routinely collected and examined for the presence of Laboulbeniomycetes. Newly armed with molecular methods, mycologists are poisedto use Laboulbeniomycetes-insect associations as models for the study of a variety of basic evolutionary and ecological questions involving host-parasite relationships, modes of nutrient intake, population biology, host specificity, biological control, and invasion biology. Collaboration between mycologists and entomologists is essential to successfully advance knowledge of Laboulbeniomycetes and their intimate association with their hosts.

Laboulbeniomycetes: Evolution, natural history, and Thaxter's final word.

Historically, thallus-forming Laboulbeniomycetes, including the orders Laboulbeniales and Herpomycetales, were set apart because of their distinctive morphology and ecology. Although some biologists correctly interpreted these arthropod ectoparasites as fungi, even ascomycetes, others thought they were worms, red algae, or members of taxa described especially for them. Speculation on the evolution of the group involving red algae, the morphology-based Floridean Hypothesis, persisted deep into the 20th century, in part because valid alternatives were not presented. Although the distinctive features of Laboulbeniales clearly set them apart from other fungi, the difficulty was in the absence of characters grouping them among the fungi. Thaxter considered the Laboulbeniales to be ascomycetes, but he avoided phylogenetic discussions involved in the Floridean Hypothesis all of his life. Eventually, developmental studies of the life history of Pyxidiophora species, hyphal perithecial ascomycetes with 2-celled ascospores, revealed characters connecting Laboulbeniales to other ascomycetes. The distinctive morphological features of Laboulbeniales (absence of mycelium, a thallus developed from 2-celled ascospores by cell divisions in several planes, arthropod parasitism) can be best understood by comparison with Pyxidiophora. The development of a 3-dimensional thallus composed of true parenchyma occurs not only in Laboulbeniales, but also in Pyxidiophora species. The life history of arthropod ectoparasitism of Laboulbeniales as well as mycoparasitism and phoretic dispersal by arthropods of Pyxidiophora species can be explained by Tranzschel's Law, originally applied to rust fungi. Molecular analyses including other arthropod-associated fungi have contributed to a better understanding of an enlarged class, Laboulbeniomycetes, which now includes a clade comprising Chantransiopsis, Tetrameronycha, and Subbaromyces. A two-locus phylogenetic tree highlights evolutionary and life history questions with regard to the placement of Herpomycetales as the first diverging lineage of the Laboulbeniomycetes. The sister group for all the Laboulbeniomycetes remains to be discovered.

Gut anatomical properties and microbial functional assembly promote lignocellulose deconstruction and colony subsistence of a wood-feeding beetle.

Beneficial microbial associations enhance the fitness of most living organisms, and wood-feeding insects offer some of the most striking examples of this. Odontotaenius disjunctus is a wood-feeding beetle that possesses a digestive tract with four main compartments, each of which contains well-differentiated microbial populations, suggesting that anatomical properties and separation of these compartments may enhance energy extraction from woody biomass. Here, using integrated chemical analyses, we demonstrate that lignocellulose deconstruction and fermentation occur sequentially across compartments, and that selection for microbial groups and their metabolic pathways is facilitated by gut anatomical features. Metaproteogenomics showed that higher oxygen concentration in the midgut drives lignocellulose depolymerization, while a thicker gut wall in the anterior hindgut reduces oxygen diffusion and favours hydrogen accumulation, facilitating fermentation, homoacetogenesis and nitrogen fixation. We demonstrate that depolymerization continues in the posterior hindgut, and that the beetle excretes an energy- and nutrient-rich product on which its offspring subsist and develop. Our results show that the establishment of beneficial microbial partners within a host requires both the acquisition of the microorganisms and the formation of specific habitats within the host to promote key microbial metabolic functions. Together, gut anatomical properties and microbial functional assembly enable lignocellulose deconstruction and colony subsistence on an extremely nutrient-poor diet.

The Suhomyces clade: from single isolate to multiple species to disintegrating sex loci.

Candida tanzawaensis clade members are now placed in Suhomyces. The group was virtually unknown until the early 2000s. Here, we review progress made on Suhomyces over the last two decades and provide data from reports of new members of the group from distant localities worldwide, their habitats and a new study of mating loci that helps explain earlier failed compatibility tests. Phylogenetic studies indicate early diverging members are mostly associated with plants, but later diverging species are usually fungus-feeding insect associates. The genome of S. tanzawaensis was known to have a heterothallic mating allele arrangement with a single MAT α idiomorph. For this review, we generate sequence data and compare the MAT gene arrangement of 30 strains from nine Suhomyces species. These varied from MAT α loci containing mating genes α1 and α2, hypothetical MAT a loci without detectable mating genes a1 and a2 to truncated, possibly completely dissociated MAT loci with intraspecific variation. The absence of a second MAT in a genome locus precludes the possibility of mating type switching. Sympatric speciation likely occurred after MAT locus deterioration began in isolated habitats. Although asexual reproduction may be an effective short-term strategy, theory predicts it will not endure over the extreme long term.

Phylogenetic taxon definitions for Fungi, Dikarya, Ascomycota and Basidiomycota.

Phylogenetic taxon definitions (PTDs) are explicit, phylogeny-based statements that specify clades. PTDs are central to the system of rank-free classification that is governed by the PhyloCode, but they can also be used to clarify the meanings of ranked names. We present PTDs for four major groups: Fungi, Dikarya, Ascomycota, and Basidiomycota.

The Fungal Tree of Life: from Molecular Systematics to Genome-Scale Phylogenies.

The kingdom Fungi is one of the more diverse clades of eukaryotes in terrestrial ecosystems, where they provide numerous ecological services ranging from decomposition of organic matter and nutrient cycling to beneficial and antagonistic associations with plants and animals. The evolutionary relationships of the kingdom have represented some of the more recalcitrant problems in systematics and phylogenetics. The advent of molecular phylogenetics, and more recently phylogenomics, has greatly advanced our understanding of the patterns and processes associated with fungal evolution, however. In this article, we review the major phyla, subphyla, and classes of the kingdom Fungi and provide brief summaries of ecologies, morphologies, and exemplar taxa. We also provide examples of how molecular phylogenetics and evolutionary genomics have advanced our understanding of fungal evolution within each of the phyla and some of the major classes. In the current classification we recognize 8 phyla, 12 subphyla, and 46 classes within the kingdom. The ancestor of fungi is inferred to be zoosporic, and zoosporic fungi comprise three lineages that are paraphyletic to the remainder of fungi. Fungi historically classified as zygomycetes do not form a monophyletic group and are paraphyletic to Ascomycota and Basidiomycota. Ascomycota and Basidiomycota are each monophyletic and collectively form the subkingdom Dikarya.

Made for Each Other: Ascomycete Yeasts and Insects.

Fungi and insects live together in the same habitats, and many species of both groups rely on each other for success. Insects, the most successful animals on Earth, cannot produce sterols, essential vitamins, and many enzymes; fungi, often yeast-like in growth form, make up for these deficits. Fungi, however, require constantly replenished substrates because they consume the previous ones, and insects, sometimes lured by volatile fungal compounds, carry fungi directly to a similar, but fresh, habitat. Yeasts associated with insects include Ascomycota (Saccharomycotina, Pezizomycotina) and a few Basidiomycota. Beetles, homopterans, and flies are important associates of fungi, and in turn the insects carry yeasts in pits, specialized external pouches, and modified gut pockets. Some yeasts undergo sexual reproduction within the insect gut, where the genetic diversity of the population is increased, while others, well suited to their stable environment, may never mate. The range of interactions extends from dispersal of yeasts on the surface of insects (e.g., cactus-Drosophila-yeast and ephemeral flower communities, ambrosia beetles, yeasts with holdfasts) to extremely specialized associations of organisms that can no longer exist independently, as in the case of yeast-like symbionts of planthoppers. In a few cases yeast-like fungus-insect associations threaten butterflies and other species with extinction. Technical advances improve discovery and identification of the fungi but also inform our understanding of the evolution of yeast-insect symbioses, although there is much more to learn.

Comparative genomics of biotechnologically important yeasts.

Ascomycete yeasts are metabolically diverse, with great potential for biotechnology. Here, we report the comparative genome analysis of 29 taxonomically and biotechnologically important yeasts, including 16 newly sequenced. We identify a genetic code change, CUG-Ala, in Pachysolen tannophilus in the clade sister to the known CUG-Ser clade. Our well-resolved yeast phylogeny shows that some traits, such as methylotrophy, are restricted to single clades, whereas others, such as l-rhamnose utilization, have patchy phylogenetic distributions. Gene clusters, with variable organization and distribution, encode many pathways of interest. Genomics can predict some biochemical traits precisely, but the genomic basis of others, such as xylose utilization, remains unresolved. Our data also provide insight into early evolution of ascomycetes. We document the loss of H3K9me2/3 heterochromatin, the origin of ascomycete mating-type switching, and panascomycete synteny at the MAT locus. These data and analyses will facilitate the engineering of efficient biosynthetic and degradative pathways and gateways for genomic manipulation.

Description of Teunomyces gen. nov. for the Candida kruisii clade, Suhomyces gen. nov. for the Candida tanzawaensis clade and Suhomyces kilbournensis sp. nov.

DNA sequence analysis has shown that species of the Candida kruisii clade and species of the C. tanzawaensis clade represent phylogenetically circumscribed genera, which are described as Teunomyces gen. nov., type species T kruisii, and Suhomyces gen. nov., type species S tanzawaensis Many of the species are distributed worldwide and they are often isolated from fungus-feeding insects and their habitats. Included is the description of S. kilbournensis (type strain NRRL Y-17864, CBS 14276), a species found almost exclusively on maize kernels (Zea mays) in IL, USA.