Fungi: Basidiomycota, Mushrooms, and Symbiotic Relationships

Vocabulary flashcards covering fungal taxonomy, structures of club fungi and mushrooms, and symbiotic and parasitic relationships involving ascomycetes and basidiomycetes.

Phylum Basidiomycota

A phylum of fungi, also known as club fungi, consisting of over $31{,}000$ multicellular, mostly sexually reproducing species composed of septate hyphae.

Subkingdom Dikarya

The subkingdom of fungi formed by the phyla Basidiomycota and Ascomycota.

Basidium

A four-projection, club-shaped structure that produces spores called basidiospores.

Basidiocarp

The fruiting body (mushroom) that houses the basidia and serves as the site where nuclear fusion, meiosis, and spore production occur.

Dikaryotic mycelium

The mycelium produced when haploid reproductive hyphae meet and fuse prior to the formation of a basidiocarp, which can fruit for many years.

Gilled mushrooms

Mushrooms that have their basidia located in specialized folds called gills.

Shelf fungi and pore mushrooms

Fungi whose basidia terminate inside tubes rather than on gills.

Spore dispersal in mushrooms

A process that is mostly windblown, though some fungi utilize other abiotic factors or insect dispersal; some large mushrooms can produce $40\text{ million}$ spores per hour.

Ophiostoma

An ascomycete fungus responsible for causing Dutch elm disease.

Physoderma maydis

An ascomycete fungus that acts as a corn parasite.

Cordyceps

An ascomycete fungus that functions as an invertebrate parasite.

Ergot

An ascomycete fungus that is parasitic to many wheat crops and produces hallucinogenic lysergic acid.

Smuts and rusts

Basidiomycete plant parasites that infect cereal crops, causing significant economic loss each year.

Ant-fungus mutualism

A symbiotic relationship in which ant species cultivate a basidiomycete fungus as a food source.