Fungi with Focus on Subdivision Zygomycotina and Ascomycotina

Fungi comprises a vast and varied throng of organisms that stomach third estate characteristics with both the lower plants (algae) and lower animals but be non related to apiece other(1, a, b,c). They contain true mitochondria and a membrane-en closed(a) nucleus. They bugger off no chlorophyll and chloroplast. Reproduction is achieved through sexual and asexual means(12). intimately kingdom Fungi grow as subsectioned tubular systems, or mycelia, whose individual(a) filaments or hyphae atomic procedure 18 surrounded by rigid cell w solelys containing chitin, cellulose, or both, and other polysaccharides. All fungus kingdom lack photosynthetic ability and be suffice require pre scoreed organic compounds(2).Prior to the development of fungus kingdom in the microscope in the 1600s, the exactly fungi described were the higher fungi that have large fruit structures, such as morels, mushrooms, and puffballs. In 1836, the study of fungi was termed mycology (a branch of botan y). The distinct groups of fungi are classified according to their means of sexual imitation, conduct cycle exhibited, growth and developmental stages, and means of asexual propagation(4). Two social class System Myxomycota and Eumycota. Ainsworth constructed a two- partitioning system for fungithe kingdom is split up into two groups, namely Division Myxomycota and Division Eumycota.In Division Myxomycota, the fungi grow as multinucleate amoeboid plasmodia and produce motile uninucleate amobae, as well as biflagellate cells. The so called true fungi are placed in Division Eumycota. The evolutionary relations for this division whitethorn be described as a single phyletic series, except for Oomycetes(6). Eumycota and Subdivisions. The Division Eumycota is subdivided into subdivison Mastigomycotina, subdivision Basidiomycotina, subdivision Deuteromycota, subdivision Zygomycotina, and Ascomycotina. In subdivision Mastigomycotina, the fungi produce motile spores called zoospores, with one or two flagella.The subdivision Basidiomycotina overwhelms members producing haplontic sexual spores called basidiospores on a specialized cell called the basidium. The subdivision Deuteromycotina includes all fungi that lack know sexual reproductive structures. most fungi that cannot be classified fall under this subdivision. The subdivision Zygomycotina has a single class, Zygomycetes and this class includes fungibread molds or pin moldsthat typically produce an abundant or aerial, coenocytic mycelium and are common causes for the decay of of nutrients and rich sources of organic material.The subdivision Ascomycotina (formerly the class Ascomycetes) includes all true fungi in which sexual facsimile results in ascospores, produced indoors specialized structures called an ascus(7). Zygomycotina. The subdivision Zygomycotina has cell hem ins containing chitin as a unproblematic component. They reproduce asexually by means of non-motile spores called sporangiospores pr oduced in the sporangia formed on branches (sporangiophores) of the mycelium. In well-nigh species, such as the Rhizopus nigrificans, the sporangia arise in clusters with rhizoids at the base and hyphal strands or stolons interconnecting the clusters.The spores are released by the breakdown of the sporangial wall of the sporangial wall and dispersed by air /wind or water current. They grow by direct outgrowth of hyphal tube to produce a newfangled mycelium. Rhizoids anchor the fungi to the substrate, acting like roots, thus releasing the enzymes essential to breakdown the substrate and absorbing the broken down nutrients (1). sexual copy may occur amidst different parts of the mycelium (homothallic mating) or between two sterile strains/cells of opposite mating pillow slip. The latter is regulated by a single pair of genes or alleles.One gene is said to be the plus mating type and the other the minus mating type (8). The gametangia, or the sex organs, fuse to form a dormant, thick-walled pigmented and often mold fertilized ovum called the zygospore. The mature zygospores eventually germinate to produce the new monoploid mycelium. The representatives for this subdivision are members of the Rhizopus species like R. oligosporus and R. stolonifer(2). The genetic regulation of sexual reproduction in fungi was number 1 discovered in Zygomycetes by Albert Blakeslee, who coined the terms homothallism and heterothallism to describe the two opposite mating types.Both are known to be common in throughout the kingdom. Ascomycotina. The subdivision Ascomycotina have chitinous cell walls. In some ascomycetes, male structures (antheridia) and female structures (ascogonia) are produced. The antheridia donate nuclei to the ascogonia by fusion with a receptive filament, the trichogyne. In others, the alike(p) function may be accomplished by conidia (asexual spores that can overly serve as fertilizing elements) or by hyphal fusion. The parental nuclei in the ascogo nium get in touch in the ascogonium and enter the hyphal branches that grow out from it wi splendid a development fruiting body called the ascocarp.The paired parental nuclei divide synchronously (conjugate division) in specialized hyphae with binucleate cells (ascogenous hyphae). The tip cells of the ascogenous hyphae form a hook in which the haploid parental nuclei fuse to produce a diploid zygote nucleus. The zygote nucleus immediately undergoes meiotic division to produce iv haploid nuclei in the enlarging cell, called the ascus at this type of development. In most cases the a mitotic nuclear division then doubles the number of nuclei per ascus, after which each nucleus is enclosed in a cell wall to form the ascospores.The hypahe have simple washer-shaped septa with a central pore and the asexual reproduction occurs by formation of non-motile spores conidia, oidia, arthrospores and others that are usually produced on specialized branches called conidiophores. several(prenom inal) classes of ascomycetes exist. The class Hemiascomycetes includes the unicellular or mycelial yeast. The class class Plectomycetes includes several economically important fungi that form their asci in small, simple, closed fruiting structures (cleisthothecia).The powdery mildews are all obligate parasites of higher plants and are largely host-specific. A second major group of plectomycetes include the commercially utilizable genera genus genus genus Aspergillus and genus Penicillium,as well as important pathogens of plants and humans. Sexual reproduction is relatively rare among species of Aspergillus (185 species) and Penicillium (14 species). Aspergillus produces gyves of pigmented, asexual conidia on the surface of an inflated region of a branch called a conidiophore.Conidium formation is similar similar in Penicillium, but the conidiopore is ramify to form a brushlike structure (penicillus) instead of having an inflated vesicle. The conidia are connected by chains in coni diophores but are right away dispersed by air currents. The green, black, yellow and gray colonies of these common microfungi are the results of the color of the huge number of pigmented conidia produced on the surface. All fungi in class Pyrenomycetes produce asci and ascospore sas an organized hymenial layer in a fruiting body called perithecium.The perithecium is a small flask-shaped structure with a thin wall that surrounds a basal tuft of asci with the opening at the crystallize called an ostiole. The ascospores are typically discharged from the tips of the asci as they sequentially protrude from the ostiole. The perithecia may form separate structures on the mycelium, or they may lie sound below the surface of a larger mass of sterile hyphae called stroma(10). In addition to their roles in the decay of plant and animal residues and in food spoilage, these fungi (h,j) are of great significance to humans in many other ways.Aspergillus fumugatus, a common inhabitant of the hea ted compost, can cause respiratory disease in humans, and a number of related species may produce aflatoxin, a tumor inducing alkaloid, in poorly stored frowsty grain(9. ) A. flavus and A. parasiticus produces aflatoxin, B1 (f), B2 (g), G1 and G2, the first mentioned creation the most toxic (a, b,c). The disease caused by Aspergillus is termed as aspergillosis characterized by allergy and infection-like symptoms (3,4). The potential threat of Aspergillus as biological weapon of mass destruction is still being investigated (d-j).Species of both Penicillium and Aspergillus are used extensively in commercial fermentations. Camembert cheese derives its flavor from Penicillium camemberti, and Roquefort from P. roqueforti. Soy sauce is fermented with Aspergillus oryzae or A. soyae. This class also includes other species that cause disease in humans, animals and plants (4, j) for example the fungus Ceratocystis ulmi is responsible for the Dutch Elm disease, other species cause a wilt dis ease in oaks and still others reduce the quality in number (3, l). Antibiotics were first fist produced using penicillin from P.notatum the antibiotic activity of this fungus was first described by Alexander Fleming in 1929. Only through a joint effort of British and American scientists during the World War II, except was the industrial-scale production achieved, by using a better strains of P. chrysogenum. A huge antibiotic industry has since developed. . Various microfungi are used to produced a number of organic acidsgluconic, itaconic and citric acids (d,e, m), for exampleand in other chemical processes. citric acid fermentation yields about 99,000 each year.Penicilliums uses do not extend to cheese and to antibiotics alone but also in cultivationserves as grunge bioinoculant. Ochratoxin is produced by P. viridicatum and P. verrucosum. Selected Bibliography I. Books 1. Ainsworth, G. C. (1976). Introduction to the History of Mycology. New York trick Wiley & Sons, In 2. Alexop oulas, C. J. Introductory Mycology. (1979). NY Wentworth Pub, Inc. 3. Bulmer, G. C. (1979). Introduction to Medical Mycology. London Academic puppy love. 4. Christensen, M. C. (1975). Molds, Mushrooms and Mycotoxins. NY Plenum Press 5. Emmons, C. W. , Binford, J. P.Utz, J. P. , and Kwon-Chung, K. J. , 1977. Medical Mycology. New England UP. 6. Garraway, M. O. and Evans, R. C. , Fungal Nutrition and Physiology. 1984. London Academic Press. 7. colour, W. D. Alexopoulus, C. J.. biology of Myxomycetes. 1968. NY Wentworth Pub, Inc. 8. Grolier Encyclopedia. (1993). Grolier International Inc. 9. Raper KB, Fennell DI. , 1965 The genus Aspergillus . Baltimore, Maryland Williams and Wilkins. 10. Webster, J. Introduction to Fungi. 1980. NY WMC Inc. II. Journals a. Asan A, Ekmekci S. , 1994 The determination of Penicillium and Aspergillus species in Edirnesoils and their seasonal distribution Tr J Biol 18291-303 b. El-Said AHM. , 1994 Studies on soil mycoflora of Bahreen Microbiol Res 149263 -269 c. Fresquez PR. , 1990 Fungi associated with soils collected beneath and between pinon and juniper canopies in New Mexico Great Basin Naturalist 50167-172 d. Ghildiyal JC. , 1993 Mycoflora of decomposing leaf litter in a subtropical freshwater flood out Proc Nat Acad Sci India 63 (B)H 207-211 e. Joffe AZ. , 1967 The mycoflora of a light soil in a citrous fruit fertilizer trial in Israel Mycopathologia et Mycologia Applicata 32209-230 f. Kamal Gupta ML, Kumar P., 1979 Aspergilli from soils of Gorakhpur 9 Edaphic factors and distribution in 4 soil types against plane cover Indian J Mycol define Pathol 956-65 gKhallil AM, Abdel-Sater MA. , 1993 Fungi from water, soil, and air polluted by industrial effluents of Manquabad superphosphate pulverisation (Assuit, Egypt) J Basic Microbiol 3183- 100 h. Klich M. , 1998 Soil fungi of some low-altitude desert cotton fields and ability of their extracts to inhibit Aspergillus flavus Mycopathologia 14297-100 i. Rutherford JM, Huang LH. , 1994 A study of fungi of remote sediments in West Virginia cavesand a comparing with reported species in the literature NSS Bulletin 5638-45 j. Steiman R, Guiraud P, Sage L, Seigle-Murandi F, Lafond J-L. , 1995 Mycoflora of soil around the Dead Sea I-Ascomycetes (including Aspergillus and Penicillium), Basidiomycetes, Zygomycetes System Appl Microbiol 18310-317 l. Sulun Y, Hasenekoglu I. , 1993 A study on Aspergillus Mich. ex. Fr. and Penicillium Link ex. Gray flora of the soils of northeast Anatolia, Turkiye Doga-Tr J Biol 1749-60 m. Yaguchi T, Someya A, Udagawa SI. , 1994 Fennellia flavipes and Neosartorya stiamenia, two new records from japan Mycoscience 35175-178