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