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The Tremellales are an order of fungi in the class Tremellomycetes. The order contains both and species, most of the latter being yeasts. All teleomorphic species in the Tremellales are parasitism of other fungi, though the yeast states are widespread and not restricted to hosts. Basidiocarps (fruit bodies), when produced, are gelatinous.
The order currently comprises 11 families, containing around 250 valid species. Significant genera include Tremella, one species of which is edible mushroom and commercially cultivated, and the yeast genus Cryptococcus, several species of which are human .
Rea's circumscription was generally accepted until the 1980s. In 1945, however, G.W. Martin proposed a substantial extension of the order to include all the species within the (now obsolete) class Heterobasidiomycetes except for the rusts and the smuts. Martin therefore included within the Tremellales not only the Tremellaceae, but also the Auriculariaceae, Dacrymycetaceae, Hyaloriaceae, Phleogenaceae, Septobasidiaceae, Sirobasidiaceae, and Tulasnellaceae (including Ceratobasidium). This extended version of the order was not widely adopted, but was used in a number of publications by Martin himself and, as late as the 1970s, by his student Bernard Lowy.
A more precise revision was undertaken in 1984, when Robert Bandoni used transmission electron microscopy to investigate the ultrastructure of the septal pore apparatus in species of the Tremellales. This revealed that Tremella and its allies were distinct from Exidia and its allies, despite both groups having tremelloid basidia. Bandoni referred the latter group to the Auriculariales, restricting the Tremellales to the Tremellaceae, Sirobasidiaceae, and Tetragoniomycetaceae.
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