fungi in the phylum Chytridiomycota
Fungi appear in the news with surprising frequency. However, many of those stories do not provide any new information. Below is a summary of what we’ve learned about fungi from March through April 2017. Read below to learn about: C. auris in the U.S., aflatoxin-destroying corn, viruses defying fungal incompatibility, fungus-farming ant evolution, bat and salamander diseases, and more! Visit the associated links to get the full story.
Chytridiomycosis is a disease causing precipitous declines in frog and salamander populations on a global scale. There are two fungi responsible for this disease: Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) and Batrachochytrium salamandivorans (Bsal). The former can infect all amphibians while the latter infects only salamanders and newts. Both of these pathogens belong to the fungal phylum Chytridiomycota. Fungi in this phylum (“chytrids”) have a very simple cell structure and produce spores with flagella. Because of this, they can easily swim through water and infect amphibian hosts.
Phylum chytridiomycota is the oldest phylum of fungi, with a fossil record dating back to the Vendian period (around 500 million years ago). It is no surprise, then, that chytrids are the simplest fungi. Hyphae produced by chytrids can be unicellular, diminutive rhizoids or multicellular and as large as those produced by species in the other fungal phyla. Chytrids are unique among the fungi in that they produce motile spores. Each spore is equipped with one whiplash flagellum at its posterior. Other fungus-like organisms which produce motile spores (often with multiple flagella) but have cellulose cell walls are no longer classified as fungi (chytrids, like all other fungi, have chitin in their cell walls). Asexual zoospores are formed in a zoosporangium and are released through a pore. The simplest chytrids form a very small network of rhizoids and produce only one zoosporangium per thallus. However, more complex chytrids may form...
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