myco 2

• True Fungi Phylogenetic Tree
• Highlighted phyla


  • Flagellated
  • Usually found in aquatic environments
• Chytridiomycosis infects skin, characterized by sloughing and thickening of skin, eye-redness, etc., causing massive declines and extinctions, notably in frog species
• Chytridiomycosis

  Caused by Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (in frogs) and B. salamandrivorans (in salamanders)
• PHYLUM CHYTRIDIOMYCOTA

  • "Chytrids"
  • 100 genera & ~1000 species
  • Aerobic and zoosporic (uniflagellate)
  • Saprophytic
  • Pathogenic to fungi, algae, plants, and amphibians
  • Occurs in freshwater, marine, and soils
  • Causes Chytridiomycosis in amphibians
• Thallus structure

  • Endobiotic and epibiotic growth
• Methods of isolation

  Baiting techniques (e.g. pollen, leaves, fruits, snake skin, cellophane, insect skeletons)
• Physical characteristics of Chytridiomycota

  • Thalli - Multinucleated, spheroid body
  • Cell walls - Chitin and glucan, cellulose in one species
  • No branched hyphae or mycelium
• Chytridiomycosis is easily spread through water
• Life cycle of Chytrids

  • Operculate and inoperculate discharge tubes
• Sporangium development in some chytrid species


  Holocarpic and eucarpic
• PHYLUM BLASTOCLADIOMYCOTA

  • Abbreviation: ABBCC-P
  • Includes various genera with different lifestyles
• PHYLUM NEOCALLIMASTIGOMYCOTA

  • Anaerobic
  • Found in the digestive tract of ruminants
  • Fibrolytic
  • Asexually reproducing
• Characteristics of Neocallimastigomycetes


  • Flagellated, multi-flagellation observed
  • Enhance bioaugmentation and biofuel production
• Allomyces macrogynus


  • Forms haploid and diploid colonies, with distinct gametophyte and sporophyte structures
• PHYLUM GLOMEROMYCOTA


  Creates arbuscular mycorrhiza
• The symbiont glomeromycete improves the supply of water and nutrients to the host plant while the host transfers ~20% of plant-fixed carbon to the symbiont fungus
• Arbuscules


  • Microstructural site for nutrient transfer
• Life cycle of macrogynus

  1. Forms haploid (gametophyte) and diploid (sporophyte) colonies

  2. Gametophyte has male and female gametangia

  3. Sporophyte has meiosporangia for haploid zoospores and mitosporangia for diploid zoospores
• PHYLUM GLOMEROMYCOTA

  • Obligate symbionts
  • Produces aseptate hyphae
  • Produces spores with multi-layered walls
• PHYLUM GLOMEROMYCOTA creates arbuscular mycorrhiza
• PHYLUM ZYGOMYCOTA

  • Ecologically diverse
  • Non-flagellated
  • ~900 species
• PHYLUM ZYGOMYCOTA may exist as

  • Insect pathogen (Entomophtorales)
  • Food spoilage fungus (Mucorales) (Saprophytes)
  • Parasites (amoeba and invertebrates) (Zoospagales)
  • Mycorrhizal symbionts (plant roots)
• Reproduction of PHYLUM ZYGOMYCOTA

  1. Asexual (sporangia formation)

  2. Sexual (gametangial copulation/fusion)
• PHYLUM ZYGOMYCOTA lacks a motile stage and can be spread by wind, insects, water
• PHYLUM ZYGOMYCOTA

  • Coenocytic mycelium, lacks septations
  • Cell wall made of chitin and chitosan
• Asexual reproduction (sporangia)

  • Mucorales (Spoilage zygomycetes (Rhizopus spp.)
  • May be opportunistic pathogens, found in dung (Pilobolus spp.)
• PHYLUM MICROSPORIDIUM is obligate intracellular parasites that can infect both humans and animals
• PHYLUM MICROSPORIDIUM is an opportunistic pathogen to immunocompromised patients causing gastrointestinal symptoms, ocular infections, and systemic diseases
• Sexual reproduction (zygosporangia)


  • Formulation of zygosporangia releases zygospores, very resistant and can survive adverse/extreme conditions
  • Formed by gametangial copulation/conjugation/fusion
• DIKARYA comprises Basidiomycota and Ascomycota, forming cells containing two nuclei during sexual reproduction
• General characteristics of Phylum Basidiomycota


  • Over 30,000 species
  • Includes mushrooms and toadstools, bracket fungi, puffballs, earth balls, earth stars, stinkhorns, false truffles, jelly fungi and some less familiar forms
  • Also includes rust and smut fungi, pathogens of higher plants causing serious crop diseases
  • Terrestrial with wind-dispersed spores, but some grow in freshwater or marine habitats
• Basidiomycota


  The name refers to the formation of cells containing two nuclei during the process of sexual reproduction in these fungi
• Ascomycetes grow either as mycelia or as...
• Life cycle of Basidiomycota

  Clamp connection: Nuclei cannot migrate through unmodified dolipore septa, and their distribution within the hyphae that develop after the fusion of sexually compatible colonies involves the formation of clamp connections
• General characteristics of Phylum Ascomycota

  • Largest phylum (~33,000 species)
  • Yeasts, filamentous fungi, lichen symbionts, mycorrhizal species, saprotrophs, pathogens used in food production and flavouring
  • Many grow as endophytes in symptomless associations with plants
• Kingdom that comprises

  • the Basidiomycota
  • the Ascomycota
• Subphylum Agaricomycetes


  • 16,000 species
  • Basidiome fruiting-body includes Agaricales, Boletales, Russulales, Polyporales, Phallales, Auriculariales, Jelly fungus, Dacrymycetes, Tremellomycetes
  • Agaricales – largest group, gill mushrooms like Agaricus bisporus (button mushroom), Amanita phalloides (death cap), Psilocybe sp. (hallucinogen), Armillaria sp. (world’s largest organism)
  • Polyporales – shelf fungi causing rot in standing/fallen logs, wood decomposers like Ganoderma sp.
  • Boletales – Boletus sp., edible mushrooms like Boletus edulis (king mushroom), Serpula lacrymans (dry-rot fungus), Coniophora puteana (damages buildings)
  • Jelly Fungi: Dacrymycetes and Tremellomycetes
  • Puccuniomycotina (Rust and Allies) - obligate plant pathogens like Puccinia graminis causing black stem rust of wheat
  • Ustilagomycotina (Smuts) - obligate plant pathogens like Ustilago maydis (corn smut)
  • Dacrymyces stillatus – orange jelly inhabiting decaying wood materials
• Ascomycetes growth

  1. Mycelia consisting of septate hyphae

  2. Yeasts multiplying by budding or fission
• Types of Fruiting Body

  • Cleistothecium: Aspergillus, Penicillium
  • Apothecium: Chlorociboria aeruginascens, Aleuria aurantia
  • Perithecium: Nectria, Sordaria fimicola