Kingdom Fungi
Phylum Ascomycota
_ General Characteristics
- Phylum Ascomycota includes yeasts, molds, morels, cup fungi, truffles, and blights
- Called "cup fungi" or "sac fungi"
- Some have complex life cycles, yeasts have simple meiotic reproduction
- The visible, reproductive portion of the Ascomycete is the ascocarp
- Note that the names of many parts of the different Fungi refer to which phylum they are classified under. Anything beginning with "Asci-" is likely in Ascomycota
- Ascus = cup-shaped reproductive structure. "Ascus" means "skin sack"
- Karyogamy = the fusion of two nuclei in the basidium, making an n+n cell into a 2n cell
- Asexual reproduction is common, occurs in conidiaphores (modified hyphae)
- Conidia grow at the end of the conidiaphore and fall off to form a new colony