Ascomycota

Question 1

Similarities between Ascomycota and Basidiomycota

Answer 1

• Both share compartmentalized mycelium
• Dikaryotkic stages in life cycle
• May have diverged from common ancestor

Question 2

Mycelial acomycetes

Answer 2

• compartmentalized mycelium
• Septa with simple pores
• Presence of Woronin bodies

Question 3

Woronin bodies

Answer 3

• found in mycelial ascomycetes ONLY
• function unknown, thought to plug holes so cells cant pass through
• membrane bound structures associated with septum

Question 4

Human affairs by ascomycota

Answer 4

• Pathogens of crops/trees (chestnut blight, powdery mildew)
• Interactions with animals (ringworm, athlete’s foot)
• Industrial mycology (Fermentation)
• Medical mycology (antibiotics)

Question 5

Diversity of Ascomycota

Answer 5

• approx 90,000 species

- very diverse, includes yeasts, asexual taxa, lichen-forming taxa

Question 6

Chestnut blight

Answer 6

• Cryphonectria
• 1905 Bronx
• Raveged 3.6 million acres in 50 years

Question 7

Asexual reproduction in Ascomycota

Answer 7

• fission (budding) in yeasts and dimorphic ascomycetes
• Fragmentation
• Production of asexual progagules (conidia)

Question 8

Filamentous Ascomycetes

Answer 8

• very diverse
• develop functional sex organs
• Ascogonium, ascogenous hyphae, and croziers enclosed in ascocarp
• Mycelial or ascospore stages generally overwinter

Question 9

Ascosphaerales

Answer 9

-Sometimes classified with yeasts due to lack of ascocarp developed from outgrowths of hyphae

Question 10

What makes honeybees look like mummies in the hives?

Answer 10

• Chalkbrood disease

- Ascosphaerales

Question 11

Onygenales are characterized by

Answer 11

• many medically important species
• asci free on mycelium or within ascocarps
• single-celled ascospores and dry conidia
• keratin used as nutrition source

Question 12

Eurotiales

Answer 12

• many similarities to onygenales
• sexual fusion involves trichogyne
• starchy or cellulosic substrates
• good the bad and the ugly

Question 13

Why are the eurotiales remarkable fungi?

Answer 13

• some decay food in our fridges
• some impart delicious flavors
• some infect our bodies
• some are medically useful

Question 14

Pyrenomycetes

Answer 14

• Perithecial ascocarps
• Persistent asci with forcible spore discharge
• diverse and complex anamorphs
• single walled asci usually in hymenium

Question 15

Importance of pyrenomycetes

Answer 15

• parasites of anthropods
• mammalian parasites
• mycotoxin producers

Question 16

Discomycetes

Answer 16

• ascocarp an apothecium
• divided into operculate and inoperculate
• many saprobic, some predatory

Question 17

Operculate are only in

Answer 17

-apothecial ascocarps

Question 18

Prototunicate ascus

Answer 18

• no active spore shooting mechanism bc theyre underground

- mainly in cleistothecial ascocarps