Phylogeny

for quiz 1

Phylogenetic Tree

Microsporidia

• Form spores

• Unicellular

• Obligate parasites that exploit animals,

especially insects

• Cause castration, gigantism, or change of sex of

the host in insects

• Cause microsporidiosis in humans (diarrhea and

wasting if immunocompromised); e.g.,

Enterocytozoon bieneusi and Encephalitozoon

intestinalis.

• Possibly a sister group to fungi.

Neocallimastigomycota

• Anaerobic

• Symbionts in the digestive tracts of

herbivores

• Form zoospores that are released from

sporangia.

• Zoospore: a motile asexual spore that uses a

flagellum to move through a wet or damp

environment. (General term; some protists,

bacteria, and fungi form zoospores.)

• Can survive for months in aerobic

environments, which helps them colonize

new hosts.

• example: Cows will eat them, digest them, and release them back into the environment as fertilizer and then another cow will come along and digest them again and the cycle continues.

Chytridmycota

• Form zoospores

• Like other fungi, have chitinous cell walls, a

posterior whiplash flagellum, absorptive

nutrition, use of glycogen as an energy storage

compound, synthesis of lysine by the α-amino

adipic acid pathway.

• Saprobic (eat decayed organic matter).

• Break down chitin and keratin.

• Sometimes are parasites.

• Includes Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, which

causes chytridiomycosis in frogs.

Blastidiomycota

• Called “blastoclads”

• Zoosporic true fungi: Blastocladiomycota,

Chytridiomycota, Neocallimastigomycota

• The first to exhibit alternation of generations

(haploid sexual phase (gametophyte) and

diploid asexual phase (sporophyte)).

• Can grow on pollen, keratin, cellulose, and

chitin.

• Parasites of nematodes, midges,

crustaceans, tardigrades, Daphnia.

• Some are obligate plant parasites.

Glomeromycota

• Many form arbuscular mycorrhizas with

vascular land plants and sometimes

mosses.

• many species for symbiotic relationships with plants and aid in finding nutrients and water in return for the plants sharing photosynthetic byproducts produced by the plants

Basidiomycota

• Basidiomycota + Ascomycota = “higher fungi”

• Agarics (“mushrooms”), puffballs, stinkhorns,

bracket fungi and other polypores, jelly fungi,

boletes, chanterelles, earth stars, smuts,

bunts, rusts, mirror yeasts, Cryptococcus.

• Most reproduce sexually by forming basidia

(club-shaped cells) that produce

basidiospores.

• Some only reproduce asexually

Ascomycota

• Sac fungi

• Form an ascus (from the Greek word for sac),

which is a microscopic sexual structure in

which ascospores are formed.

• Some ascomycetes are asexual, so they don’t

form asci or ascospores.

• Morels, truffles, baker’s yeast, cup fungi, dead

man’s fingers, Penicillium, ergot fungi,

powdery mildews.

• They are the fungal partner in most lichens.

• Used for antibiotics, fermenting bread/alcoholic

beverages/cheese.

• Many are pathogens; some parasitize and kill

insects (entomopathogenic fungi).

Sexual lifecycle of Basidio-mycetes

A Typical Basidiocarp

Asci of Morchella elata