Everything about Zygomycota totally explained
Zygomycota, or zygote fungi, are a
phylum of
fungi. The name of the phylum comes from
zygosporangia, where resistant spherical spores are formed during
sexual reproduction. Approximately 600 species of zygomycetes are known. They are mostly terrestrial in habitat, living in soil or on decaying plant or animal material. Zygomycete
hyphae may be
coenocytic, forming septa only where
gametes are formed or to wall off dead hyphae.
Reproduction
The common example of a zygomycete is
black bread mold (
Rhizopus stolonifera), a member of the
Mucorales. It spreads over the surface of bread and other food sources, sending hyphae inward to absorb nutrients. In its
asexual phase it develops bulbous black
sporangia at the tips of upright hyphae, each containing hundreds of haploid
spores. If the
mycelia of complementary
mating types are present, the fungus reproduces sexually and produces
zygosporangia. Zygosporangia are typically thick-walled, highly resilient to environmental hardships, and are metabolically inert. When conditions improve, however, they germinate to produce a sporangium or vegetative
hyphae.
Some zygomycetes disperse their spores in a more precise manner than simply allowing them to drift aimlessly on air currents.
Pilobolus, a fungus which grows on animal dung, bends its sporangiophores towards light with the help of a light sensitive pigment and then "fires" them with an explosive squirt of high-pressure
cytoplasm. Sporangia can be launched as far as 2m, placing them far away from the dung and hopefully on vegetation which will be eaten by an herbivore, eventually to be deposited with dung elsewhere. Different mechanisms for forcible spore discharge have evolved among members of the zygomycete order
Entomophthorales.
Phylogeny
The Zygomycota are generally placed near the base of the fungal
phylogenetic tree, having diverged from other fungi after
chytrids.
Molecular phylogenetics reveal that they form a
polyphyletic group and could see a split into several new phyla. The order Glomales was removed in 2001 and elevated to
Division Glomeromycota due their lack of zygospore formation, their
mycorrhizal habit, and lack of
DNA sequence homology.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Zygomycota'.
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