XVI International Botanical Congess

The insight in fungal biodiversity is limited,and its representation in culture collections even more so. Also the character of collections as instrument for primarily taxonomic and phylogenetic research differs significantly from those involved in the branch of prospecting. Interactions between the two are indispensable to improve insight in biodiversity and how to assess this diversity. Culture collections are evolving into Biological Resource Centers,and have to cope with great challenges in,a.o.,bioinformatics and genomics, often still unknown in scope and character. Specialization in holdings and in support of fundamental and applied research is inevitable,as exemplified by the prospecting and the taxonimiccollector.