Classification of fungi

The aim of classification is firstly, to nominate different fungi according to international

system so that it will be easy for biologists to put their findings under unified system.
Secondly, to gather similar fungi together in groups and put a general key to all these groups
in order to facilitate identify any fungus and incident its systematic position.

It is to be noticed that any classification system is not rigid or absolute but is always
changing.

E. A. Bessey (1950): proposed a more elaborate system of classification of fungi, based on

reproductive characteristics.

Classification of Fungi by G. W. Martin (1961): included slime moulds under fungi. His
classification is based on septation of hypha and characteristics of spore.

C. J. Alexopoulos (1962) also included slime molds under fungi and placed them as Division
Mycota and it was divided into two subdivisions: Myxomycotina (wall-less form) and
Eumycotina (true, walled fungi).

Classification of Fungi by: Ainsworth G. C. (1966, 71, 73) proposed a more natural system
of classification of fungi. This classification is based on morphology, especially of
reproductive structure. He includes fungi along with slime molds under the kingdom Mycota.

In recent years, the main arguments have been between taxonomists striving towards a
phylogenetic definition based especially on the similarity of relevant DNA sequences, and
others
who take a biological approach to the subject and regard fungi as organisms sharing all or
many key ecological or physiological characteristics
The different taxa considered in this system are:

Further the species are divided into varieties, biological strains,

physiological races, etc.

But the genera and species have no standard ending. In this system,
division has been replaced by phylum and all taxa are written in italics.

Division mycota: These include non green, nucleated thallophytes which are saprophytes or
parasite in nutrition. Subdivision Myxomycotine: Thallus is achlorophyllus, multinucleated
mass of protoplasm called plasmodium, e.g., slime molds. Subdivision Eumycotina: All the
fungi except the slime molds are included in this subdivision.

Microscopic features are still important today for recognizing fungi and making an initial
identification which can then, if necessary, be
backed up by molecular methods. Indeed, the comparison of DNA sequences obtained from
fungi is meaningful only if these fungi have previously been characterized and named by
conventional methods. It is therefore just as necessary today as it ever was to teach mycology
students the art of examining and identifying
fungi.

A detailed description of modern taxonomic methods is beyond the scope of this note book. A
particularly readable introduction to this subject has been written by Berbee and Taylor
(1992). Only the most important molecular
methods are outlined here. They are based either directly on the DNA sequences or on the
properties of their protein products, especially enzymes.
Proteins extracted from the cultures of fungi can be separated by their differential migration
in the electric field of an electrophoresis gel. The speed of migration is based on the charge
and size of each molecule, resulting in a characteristic banding pattern.

Lower fungi: They have simple thallus which are unicellular and others filamentous
(mycelium), usually septa is not present. Class Chytridiomycetes: Motile cells have a single
flagellum of whiplash type inserted at the posterior end. Class Hyphochytridiomycetes:
Motile cell spossesses a single flagellum of tinsel type inserted at the anterior end. Class
Plasmodiophoromycetes: Motile cells are biflagellated (whiplash type), but one is longer
than the other one. Class Oomyceters: Motile cells are biflagellated, nearly equal length, one
of these points forwards and the other trails behind All the aforementioned groups that
produce swimming particles are called )All the aforementioned groups that produce
zoospores are called mastigomycetes) . Class Zygomycetes: Motile cells are absent. Asexual
reproduction take place by sporangiospores. Class Trichomycetes: Motile cells are lacking.
Asexual reproduction take place by conidia.

Higher fungi: The somatic phase consists mostly of a mycelium which is usually septate.
Class Ascomycetes: The characteristic spores called ascospores are produced endogenous
within sac like structure called asci. Class Basidiomycetes: Characteristic spores called
basidospores are produced exogenous on club shaped structure called basidia. Class
Deuteromycetes: Sexual stage is unknown. The somatic phase consist a septate mycelium
which multiply by conidia.
Annotated classification
The following classification is adapted from G.W. Martin in Ainsworth’s Dictionary of the
Fungi, 5th ed. (1961).

Division:Myxomycota
Class: Myxomycetes
They are commonly known as true slime molds or plasmodial slime
molds, found in damp places especially on old wood and other decom-
posing plant parts, myxomycetes have been traditionally studied by
mycologists (Martin and Alexopoulos 1969). .

Important characteristics:
1. Somatic body is a free-living plasmodium.

2. They feed on yeast cells, protozoa, fungal spores and other substances.
3.They have sporangium, aethalium and plas- modiocarp . Meiosis takes
place during spore formation in the fructification.

Common genera:
Stemonitis, Ceratiomyxa, Physarum etc.

Kingdom:Fungi
Eukaryotic (with true nuclei), achlorophyllous (without chlorophyll), acellular, unicellular, or
multicellular organisms; microscopic or macroscopic in size; usually with cell walls and
filaments; typically reproducing by spores produced asexually or sexually; walls containing
chitin, cellulose, or both, among other substances; about 50,000 living species; fewer than 500
fossil species known.

Division Eumycota:(truefungi)
Assimilative stage walled, typically filamentous (a mycelium), sometimes unicellular, usually
eucarpic (having only part of the thallus forming a fruiting structure); asexual reproduction by
fission, budding, fragmentation, or, more typically, by spores; sexual reproduction by various
means, usually resulting in the formation of resting structures or meiospores.

Lower fungi
1-Class Chytridiomycetes
Unicellular or filamentous, holocarpic (having all of the thallus involved in the formation of
the fruiting body) or eucarpic; motile cells (zoospores or planogametes) characterized by a
single, posterior, whiplash flagellum; mostly aquatic fungi saprobic or parasitic on algae,
fungi, or, less often, on flowering plants.

Order Chytridiales
Mycelium lacking but rhizoids (short absorbing filaments) or rhizomycelium often present;
chiefly freshwater saprobes or parasites of algae and fungi; some terrestrial species, such
as Olpidium brassicae and Synchytrium endobioticum, cause plant disease; about 550 species.

Order Blastocladiales
Water molds with a restricted thallus, characterized by the production of thick-walled, pitted,
resistant sporangia; sexual reproduction by isogamous (equal in size and alike in form) or
anisogamous (unequal in size but still similar in form) planogametes; Allomyces exhibits an
alternation of 2 equal generations; most are saprobes, but various species
of Coelomomyces are parasitic in mosquito larvae; uniquely, their hyphae are devoid of cell
walls; more than 50 species.

Order Monoblepharidales
Water molds with an extensive, foamy mycelium; sexual reproduction by a motile male
gamete (antherozoid) fertilizing a nonmotile differentiated egg, resulting in a thick-walled
oospore; about 20 species.

2-Class Hyphochytridiomycetes
A small group of mostly marine fungi very similar to the order Chytridiales but with motile
cells bearing a single tinsel flagellum (i.e., a flagellum with short side branches along the
central axis, comblike).
Order Hyphochytriales
Characters of the class; about

3-Class Plasmodiophoromycetes
Endoparasites (internal parasites) of fungi or plants often causing hypertrophy (excessive
abnormal growth); assimilative stage an endophytic (living within plant tissue) plasmodium
that becomes converted into a group of zoosporangia (structures producing motile asexual
spores) or a large number of small, walled spores; motile cells with 2 unequal, anterior,
whiplash flagella.

Order Plasmodiophorales
Characters of the class; Plasmodiophora and Spongospora cause serious plant diseases; about
35 species.

4-Class Oomycetes
Aquatic, amphibious, or terrestrial fungi; saprobic, facultatively (occasionally) or obligately
(invariably) parasitic on plants, a few on fish; asexual reproduction typically by zoospores
with 2 anterior or lateral flagella, 1 whiplash, 1 tinsel; sexual reproduction usually by contact
of differentiated gametangia (gamete- or sex-cell-producing structures) with nuclei from the
male fertilizing differentiated eggs and resulting in thick-walled oospores; thallus probably
diploid with meiosis occurring in the gametangia.

Order Lagenidiales
Holocarpic, unicellular or filamentous water molds, parasitic on algae and fungi or saprobic;
oogonium (egg-producing structure) typically containing a single egg; about 85 species.

Order Saprolegniales
Mostly eucarpic, filamentous water molds or soil fungi; saprobic or parasitic; hyphae without
constrictions or cellular plugs; oogonia containing 1 to many free eggs; some species are
diplanetic, i.e., they produce 2 types of zoospores, primary (pear-shaped with anterior
flagella) and secondary (kidney-shaped with lateral flagella); some (Aphanomyces) cause root
rots; others (Saprolegnia) infect fish and fish eggs; about 200 species.

Order Leptomitales
Aquatic saprobes found often in polluted waters; eucarpic; hyphae constricted, with cellulin
plugs, arising from a well-defined basal cell; oogonium typically containing a single egg,
which may be free or embedded in periplasm (a peripheral layer of protoplasm); 20 species.

Order Peronosporales
Aquatic or terrestrial; parasitic on algae or vascular plants, the latter mostly obligate parasites
causing downy mildews; zoosporangia, in advanced species, borne on well-differentiated
sporangiophores, deciduous and behaving as conidia (asexually produced spores); about 250
species.

5-Class Zygomycetes
Terrestrial saprobes or parasites of plants, animals, or humans; asexual reproduction by
aplanospores (nonmotile spores) in sporangia or by conidia; sexual reproduction by fusion of
morphologically similar gametangia, sometimes differing in size, resulting in thick-walled
zygospores.

Order Mucorales
Often called the bread molds; saprobic, weakly parasitic on plants, or parasitic on humans and
then causing mucormycosis (a pulmonary infection); asexual reproduction by
sporangiospores, 1-spored sporangiola (a small deciduous sporangium), or conidia; in the
genus Pilobolus the heavily cutinized sporangium is forcibly discharged; about 360 species.
Order Entomophthorales
Insect parasites or saprobes, some implicated in animal or human diseases; asexual
reproduction by modified sporangia functioning as conidia, forcibly discharged; about 150
species.
These fungi routinely cause localized and in some cases
widespread epizootics in populations of hemipterous and
homopterous insects, particularly aphids and leafhoppers, but also in
other types of insects such as grasshoppers, flies, beetle larvae, and
caterpillars. In addition, a few species of the genus Conidiobolus are
able to cause mycoses in some mammals, including humans
Order Zoopagales
Parasitic on amoebas, rotifers, nematodes, or other small animals, which they trap by various
specialized mechanisms; asexual reproduction by conidia borne singly or in chains, not
forcibly discharged; about 60 species.

6-Class Trichomycetes
Commensals (organisms living parasitically on another organism but conferring some benefit
in return, or at least not harming the host) with a filamentous thallus attached by a holdfast or
basal cell to the digestive tract or external cuticle of living arthropods; asexual reproduction
by sporangiospores (a spore borne within a sporangium), trichospores (zoospores or ciliated
spores), arthrospores (a spore resulting from fragmentation of a hypha), or amoeboid cells;
sexual reproduction, where known, zygomycetous.

Order Amoebidiales
Thallus coenocytic (without cross walls, with numerous freely distributed nuclei) arising from
a holdfast; amoeboid cells formed; about 12 species.

Order Eccrinales
Thallus coenocytic, attached by a holdfast to the digestive tract of arthropods;
aplanosporangia produced in succession; more than 50 species.

Order Asellariales
Thallus branched, septate, attached by a basal coenocytic cell; asexual reproduction by
arthrospores; 6 species.

Order Harpellales
Thallus simple or branched, septate; asexual reproduction by trichospores; sexual
reproduction zygomycetous; about 35 species.

Higher fungi
I –Class: Ascomycetes
Saprobic or parasitic on plants, animals, or humans; some are unicellular but most are
filamentous, the hyphae septate with 1, rarely more, perforations in the septa; cells
uninucleate or multinucleate; asexual reproduction by fission, budding, fragmentation, or,
more typically, by conidia usually produced on special sporiferous (spore-producing) hyphae,
the conidiophores, which are borne loosely on somatic (main-body) hyphae or variously
assembled in asexual fruiting bodies; sexual reproduction by various means resulting in the
production of meiosphores (ascospores) formed by free-cell formation in saclike structures
(asci), which are produced naked or, more typically, are assembled in characteristic open or
closed fruiting bodies (ascocarps); among the largest and most commonly known
ascomycetes are the morels, cup fungi, saddle fungi, and truffles.

Subclass Hemiascomycetidae
Asci naked, formed from single cells or on hyphae; no ascocarps or ascogenous hyphae
produced; saprobic or parasitic.

Order Protomycetales
Spore sac compound (a synascus); a poorly known small group of plant-parasitic
ascomycetes; 20 or more species.

Order Endomycetales
Mostly saprobic, a few parasitic; zygote or single cell transformed directly into the ascus;
mycelium sometimes lacking; this group includes the yeasts and their relatives.

Order Taphrinales
Parasites on vascular plants; asci produced from binucleate ascogenous (ascus-producing)
cells formed from the hyphae in the manner of chlamydospores (thick-walled spores); 90 or
more species.

Subclass Euascomycetidae
Asci unitunicate (ascus wall single-layered), borne in various types of ascocarps; saprobic or
parasitic on plants, animals, or humans.

Order Eurotiales
Asci globose to broadly oval, typically borne at different levels in cleistothecia (completely
closed ascocarp or fruiting structure); most of the human and animal dermatophytes belong
here, also many saprobic soil or coprophilous fungi; possibly up to 150 species.

Order Microascales
Asci evanescent (quickly deteriorating), borne at different levels in perithecia (closed
ascocarps with a pore in the top) with ostioles (the opening of the perithecium), or sometimes
a long necklike structure terminating in a pore; some serious plant parasites such
as Ceratocystis ulmi (Dutch elm disease) and C. fagacearum (oak wilt) belong here; about
100 species.

Order Onygenales
Asci formed in a mazaedium (a fruiting body consisting of a powdery mass of free spores
interspersed with sterile threads, enclosed in a peridium or wall structure), evanescent, and
liberating the ascospores as a powdery mass among sterile threads; about 25 species.

Order Erysiphales
Obligate parasites on flowering plants causing powdery mildews; mycelium white, superficial
in most, feeding by means of haustoria sunken into the epidermal cells of the host; 1 to
several asci in a cleistothecium, if more than 1, in a basal layer at maturity; asci globose to
broadly oval; cleistothecia with appendages; about 150 species.

Order Meliolales
Mycelium dark, superficial on leaves and stems of vascular plants, typically bearing
appendages (termed hyphopodia or setae); asci in basal layers in ostiolate perithecia without
appendages; mostly tropical fungi; more than 1,000 species.
Order Chaetomiales
Asci in basal layers in superficial perithecia that bear conspicuous, straight or curly, simple or
branched hairs on the surface; asci evanescent; about 110 species.

Order Xylariales
Perithecia with dark, membranous or carbonous (appearing as black burned wood) walls, with
or without a stroma (a compact structure on or in which fructifications are formed); asci
persistent, borne in a basal layer among paraphyses (elongate structures resembling asci but
sterile), which may ultimately gelatinize and disappear; a rather large group of fungi one of
which, Neurospora crassa, has been used extensively in genetic and biochemical studies;
approximately 4,500 species.

Order Diaporthales
Perithecia immersed in plant tissue or in a stroma with their long ostioles protruding; ascal
stalks gelatinizing, freeing the asci from their basal attachment; paraphyses lacking;
the chestnut blight fungus (Endothia parasitica) belongs here; close to 500 species.

Order Hypocreales
Perithecia and stromata when present, brightly coloured, soft, fleshy, or waxy, when fresh;
asci borne in a basal layer among apical paraphyses; about 800 species.

Order Clavicipitales
Perithecia immersed in a stroma that issues from a sclerotium (a hard-resting body resistant to
unfavourable environmental conditions); asci with a thick apex penetrated by a central canal
through which the septate, threadlike ascospores are ejected; the ergot fungus (Claviceps
purpurea), cause of ergotism in plants, animals, and humans, and the original source of LSD,
belongs to this order; some other Clavicipitales parasitize insect larvae; about 170 species.

Order Coryneliales
Asci in ascostromata with funnel-shaped ostioles at maturity; about 20 species.

Order Coronophorales
Asci in ascostromata with irregular or round, never funnel-shaped, openings; about 30
species.

Order Laboulbeniales
Ascomycetes of uncertain affinity; minute parasites of insects and arachnids with mycelium
represented only by haustoria and stalks; about 1,635 species.

Order Ostropales
Ascocarp a loculelike apothecium (an open, often cuplike ascocarp); asci inoperculate
(without a terminal pore) constructed as in the Clavicipitales; ascospores septate, threadlike;
about 80 species.

Order Phacidiales
Ascocarp an apothecium immersed in a black stroma, the upper covering of which splits in
stellate (star-shaped) or irregular fashion when ascospores mature; about 150 species.

Order Helotiales
Ascocarp an apothecium bearing inoperculate asci exposed from an early stage; some
important plant diseases are caused by members of this group (for example, Monilinia
fructicola causes brown rot of stone fruits), the earth tongues (Geoglossaceae) also belong
here; more than 1,500 species.
Order Pezizales
Ascocarp an apothecium bearing operculate (with a hinged cap) asci above the ground;
apothecia often large, cup- or saucer-shaped, spongy, brainlike, saddle-shaped, etc.; this group
includes the morels, the false morels, and the saddle fungi among others; about 700 species.

Order Tuberales(truffles)
The ascocarps, mostly closed and borne below the ground, are considered to be modified
apothecia; the asci are globose, broadly oval, or club-shaped; about 230 species.

Subclass Loculoascomycetidae
Asci bitunicate, borne in ascostromata; saprobic or parasitic on plants.

Order Myriangiales
Asci borne singly in locules arranged at various levels in a more or less globose stroma; about
100 species.

Order Dothideales
Asci borne in fascicles (clusters) in a locule devoid of sterile elements; about 600 species.

Order Pleosporales
Asci borne in a basal layer among pseudoparaphyses; more than 2,000 species.

Order Microthyriales
Stroma flattened, hemispherical, opening by a pore or tear; base usually lacking; asci borne
among pseudoparaphyses; mostly tropical fungi; about 1,200 species.

Order Hysteriales
Stroma boat-shaped, opening by a longitudinal slit, which renders it apothecium-like; asci
borne among pseudoparaphyses; about 110 species.

Stages in the development of ascus in ascomycetes.