1. The document discusses the phylum Ascomycota, focusing on the class Filamentous Ascomycetes. 2. Filamentous Ascomycetes are more complex morphologically than other groups. They typically develop sexual organs but some experience sexual degeneration. 3. Examples of important filamentous Ascomycete genera discussed include Eurotium, Eupenicillium, and Ascosphaera. Their life cycles, morphological features, and economic significance are described.

1. SUBMITTED TO:- SUBMITTED BY:-
DR. VIBHA MAM VEDANT GAUTAM
(SR. SCIENTIST) 190118013

2. Phylum :- Ascomycotina
Sub-class :- Eurotiomycetidae
Previously we studied that there are 3 early diverging
forms grouped as
1. Archiascomycetes
2. Saccharomycetes
3.Filamentous ascomycetes.
FEW POINTS ABOUT FILAMENTOUS
ASCOMYCETES :-
1.The filamentous Ascomycetes are more complex
in morphology. It is in this group the greatest
diversity of the phylum is found.

3. 2. Typically the filamentous Ascomycetes develop
functional sex organs,but sexual degeneration, especially of
the male gametangium, has been demonstrated in the
number of species and appears to be the trend in some
group.
3.Most of the species posses an ascogonium, ascogenous
hyphae,and croziers that come to be enclosed in an
ascocarp.
4. This group of fungi is notable for its diversity of asexual
diaspore,and all species examined have woronin bodies
associated with hyphal septa.
5. The EMS, unlike the situation in Saccharomycetales,
encloses all of the nuclei in a common vesicle at the
beginning of ascospore delimitation.

4. 6. Filamentous Ascomycetes have been shown to be a
monophylectic group distinguished from
Archiascomycetes and Sachharomycetes on the basis of
ribosomal DNA sequence analysis.
Classification:-
Here we use an informal higher classification of
filamentous ascomycetes based on the classification of
Nannfeldt and luttrell,with the phyllogenetic
hypotheses derived from the use of molecular studies.
A/c, to Nanfeldt and luttrell there are 4 classes
present:-
1. Plectomycetes(cleistothecial ascomycetes)
2.Pyrenomycetes(perithecial ascomycetes)

6. Life cycle pattern of many filamentous
ascomycetes:-

7. 3.Discomycetes(apothecial ascomycetes)
4.Loculoascomycetes(ascostromate ascomycetes)
Class:- Plectomycetes (Eurotiales and related
species)
Characteristics of the class:-
1. Asci typically thin walled,globose to pyriform,
evanescent
2. Asci scattered at various levels within the
ascocarp,not forming a hymenium; arising from
ascogenous hyphae of various lengths ramifying
through the ascocarp;
3. Ascospore unicellular;

8. 4. Ascocarp typically a cleistothecium when one is
present;
5. Cleistothecial peridium varying from thin wefts of
hyphae forming an arachnoid covering over the asci to
reticulate cagelike arrangements of hyphae, to pseudo-
parenchymatous, and sometimes,to stromatic
structures;
6. Various types of anamorphs and conidial forms,
often characteristic of certain families and order.

9. Hypothesized relationships of
Eurotiales,Ascospharales and Onygenales:-

10. Ripe conidia may be liberated in two basic
ways, schizolytic and rhexolytic. In schizolytic dehiscence (C, above,
left), the halves of a double septum split apart by the breakdown of a
kind of middle lamella. In rhexolytic dehiscence (D, above, right), the
outer wall of a cell beneath or between conidia breaks down

11. Order:- Ascosphaerales
Members of Ascospharales sometimes have been
considered to be yeasts because they lack an ascocarp
developed from outgrowths of hyphae around an
ascogonial system.
There are 2 important genera in this order :-
1. Ascosphaera
2. Eremacus
Genera:- Ascosphaera
Characteristics of the genera :-
1. Species of Ascosphaera are associated with bees;
most apparaantly are saprobic on the pollen and nectar
of the insect.

12. 2.Several species,including A. apis are well known
pathogens of larvae and cause a disease known as
“chalkbrood”.
3.Ascosphaera is characterized at maturity by
ascospores that are united in groups to form many
compact spore balls in a transparent spore cyst.

13. 4. Most members are dioecious, requiring two
individuals for sexual reproduction.
5. In the life cycle of A.apis 2 compatible individuals
are brought together and one develops ascogonia with
trichogynes.The male individual does not produce
specialized sex organs.
6. Plasmogamy occurs when a trichogyne, the terminal
cell of a mycelium branch, grows towards and fuse
with a hyphae of the male type.
7. The subterminal cells below the trichogyne is the
ascogonium,which is called nutriocyte or cyst.this cell
receives the contents of the trichogyne after
plasmogamy has occurred.

14. Genera :- Eramascus
1. For many years,Eramascus was considered to be a
yeast because it lacks an ascocarp.
2. Septa of Eramascus have simple septal pores with
associated woronin bodies.
3. Absence of ascocarp is considered to be a loss.
4. Sexual reproduction begins with two progametangia
that originate as small branches of adjacent hyphal
segments.

15. Life cycle of Eremascus fertilis :-

16. Order :- Onygenales
1.The order is characterized by the asci, which are
exposed or formed inside the cleistothecium.
2. The peridium may be pseudoparenchymatous or
loose aggregation of interwined hyphae, with complex
appendages.
3. The asexual stage is represented by hyphomycetous
aleurio, or arthro-conidial fungi.
There are 4 families in the order:-
1. Onygenaceae
2. Arthrodermataceae
3. Myxotrichaceae
4. Gymnoascaceae

17. Family :- Onygenaceae
Contains 23 genere and 134 species.
Imporant points related to this family :-
1. Species have some ability to degrade keratin,
characterized by pitted ascospres and large sessile
and stalked cleistothecia and pseudoparenchymatous
peridium.

18. 2. Two types of conidia formed in this family:-
(a) Arthroconidia alternating with sterile
cells that split during conidium secession.
(b) Large terminal, cylindrical to globose,
single celled, thick walled conidia,sometimes called
aleurioconidia.
3. Only cause disease to animals.

19. 4. Onygena equina is distinctive among the other
genera of onygenaceae. It grows and sporulate on old
hooves and horns and produces characteristic,
macroscopic, stalked structures referred to as
“mazaedia”. Mazaedium is a single stalked ascocarp.

21. Family:- Arthodermataceae
1. Also include keratin degrading species but differs
from Onygenaceae in being characterized by smooth
rather than punctate ascospore.
2. The cleistothecium wall is composed of hyphae that
bear ossiform or derived ossiform cells.Ossiform cells
are shaped like small bones because each cell is
swollen at the ends.
3. Arthroderma cause dermatophytosis(tinea and
ringworm diseases of the skin).
4. The species of this family are geophillic, zoophillic
and anthropophillic.

22. Family:- Myxotrichaceae
1.The family is characterized by ellipsoidal or fusoid
ascospores that are smooth or longitudinally
steriate,cleistothecial peridia of hyphal networks.
2.Genera under this family has cellulolytic properties.
3.The group characteristically may be psychrophillic.
4.Pseudogymnoascus rosea, the most common species
is found in the rhizosphere of plants.
Family:- Gymnoascaceae
1.Characterized by the ascoma which is called
gymnothecium,as it does not have a definite peridium.
2.The ascogenous hyphae and asci are surrounded by a
loose mass of hyphae.The outer hyphae are modified
to form appendages which aid in identification of
genera.

24. Order:- Eurotiales
The order is characterized by:-
1. Asci free on the mycelium or within sessile or
stipitate ascocarps;hyphae forming a mesh or solid
wall;solid wall that may be carbonaceous and of
platelike construction;
2. Sexual fusion usually by a trichogyne and
undifferentiated hyphae;
3.Spherical to ovoid evanescent asci;
4.Single celled ascospore that are oblate,spherical,
globose, or smooth or with reticulations,spined or
thickened ring with appendages.
5.Form usually phialidic conidia seceding schizo-
lytically, being known from a variety

25. of often starchy, oily, or cellulosic substrates.
6.Small brighly coloured cleistothecia ,
7.Absence of interascal tissues,
8.Unseptate ascospores,having equitorial thickening
9.Having aspergillus or penicillium as the asexual
phase.
The genera Emericella, Eurotium,
Neosartorya have Aspergillus as conidial stage
while the genera Eupenicillium and Talaromyces
have penicillium as the conidial stage.
Genera:- Eurotium (aspergillus as the
anamorph)
Introduction and importance:-
1. Conidia of the Aspergillus are always present in

26. the air and cause contamination in laboratory cultures
of bacteria and fungi.
2.A. niger is called ‘weed of the laboratory’.
3.Causes disease in human and animals like A.
fumigatus causes aspergillosis in birds and pulmonary
aspergillosis in humans.
4. Toxins in food feed stuffs example A. flavus produces
a toxin called aflatoxin.
5. Industrial production of chemicals:- strains of
Aspergillus niger are used in the manufacture of
itaconic acids,gluconic acids,citric acids and also used
in alcohol fermentation.
6.They are green molds that cover the shoes and
leather in humid weather.
7. Aspergillus are called storage fungi.

27. Thallus:- The hyphae are hyaline, septate, branched,
multinucleate.
Asexual reproduction:-
1.The mycelium ofAspergillus produces an abundance of
conidiophores.These usually arise singly from the somatic
hyphae.
2. The hyphal compartment or cell that branches to give
rise to the conidiophore is called thefoot cell.Fully
developed conidiophores are long,erect structures,each
terminating in a bulbous cell, the vesicle.
3. Once the vesicle is formed development proceeds in one
or two ways depending upon the species involved.
4. In the so called biseriate forms, a layer of cells called
metulae are produced over the vesicle surface.

28. 5. In uniseriate forms metulae are absent and phialides
arise directly from vesicle.
6. As the phialides of Aspergillus reach maturity, they begin
to form conidia in basipital chains. Conidium development
is blastic. 7. Each
conidium develops as a spherical, walled, protrusion from
the phialidic tip.

29. 8.Because conidiophores and
conidia are produces in such
abundance, their colour is
predominant one of the colony
that they cover.
9.Pigment production in
Aspergillus is profoundly
influenced by the presence or
absence of minute quantities of
trace elements. Ex:- copper.
10.Colours of colonies:-
(a)Green – A. flavus
(b)Yellow – A.ochraceus
(c)Brown – A. tamari
(d)Black – A. niger
(e)White – A. candidus(parasex)

31. Sexual reproduction:-
1.The antheridia and ascogonia are produced
closely on the same hyphae.
2.With the development of asci, hyphae arise from the
base of the ascogonium and collect around the sex
organs and form a characteristic simple astomatous
ascoma.
3. Coiled ascogonium and antheridium is
characteristic feature.
4. The ascospores have a distinct peripheral groove
which divides the ascospore into two equal halves.
5. The ascospores resemble pully wheels.

33. Genera:- Eupenicillium
(Penicillium as the conidial stage)
Introduction and importance:-
1. Cosmopolitan in distribution.
2. The antibiotic penicillin is manufactured from P.
chrysogenum.
3. P. notatum from which Alexander Flemming had
discovered penicillin,is however, not used in industrial
production.
4. Penicillin is known as “wonder drug”.
5. It is active(as a bacteriostatic agent) against Gram(+)
bacteria and also against rickettsia and some of the
larger viruses.

35. 6. The antibiotic griseofulvin is produced from the
fungus P. grisiofulvum. It is used in the treatment of
dermatophytic diseases like ringworms, athelet’s foot
and epidermophtics.
7. It is fungistatic and not fungicidal – Griseofulvin.
8. It is active only against fungi having chitin walls and
thus, ineffective on oomycetes,yeasts and bacteria.
9. P. roqueforti and P. camemberti are used in the
production of cheese having special flavours,called
roquefort and camembert cheese.
10. some diseases caused by penicillin are:-
1. Blue mold of citrus fruits:- P. italicum
2. Green mold of citrus fruit:-P. digitatum
3. Rot of apples:- P. expansum.

36. Asexual reproduction:-
1. The dominance of the conidial state is greater
in Eupenicillium than in Eurotium.
2. The characteristic conidial apparatus which
resembles a brush,is called penicillus.
3. Long septate conidiophores can arise from any
cell of the hypha and not form a thick-walled foot
cell, as in Eurotium.
4. The conidiophores branch once or twice at
two- third of its total length.These branches are called
branch cells(rami) and supporting cells,which finally
bear the bottle-shaped conidiogenous cells.
5. Conidia are formed on basipital succession.
6. In some species,the conidiophores unite to form

37. coremia(sing. Coremium).
7.The coloured conidia,green,blue or yellow give the
characteristic colour to the colony which helps in
identification of species.

38. Sexual reproduction:-
1.The uninucleate mycelium forms a swollen
cylindrical ascogonium which is uninucleate in the
beginning but by repeated divisions comes to have 64
nuclei.
2. An antheridial branch,which originates on a
separate hypha,coils around the ascogonium and cuts
a terminal antheridium.
3. Ascogenous hyphae arise from the binucleate cells of
the ascogonium and produce asci at different levels.
4. The somatic hyphae, in the mean time ,grow and
surround the ascogenous hyphae asci,form a two
layered wall(peridium).

39. 5. On the basis of determinate or indeterminate growth of
the ascoma, penicillium is called by different generic
names.If it continues growing in size (indeterminate) ,the
fungus is called Talaromyces,if it stops growing
(determinate) after attaining a definite size, the fungus is
called Eupenicillium.Conidiophore may be of 3 types:-
1. symmetrical(monoverticillate)
2.asymmetrical(bi-verticillate)
3.Broom like conidiophore.

40. Life cycle of Eupenicillium:-

41. Life cycle of Talaromyces(biverticillate penicillium):-