Explain the type of fruit bodies of ascomycetes with diagram.

Explanation

Ascomycetes :
Ascomycetes include a wide range of fungi such as yeasts, powdery mildews , cup fungi , morels ans so on

1. Although majority of the species live in terrestrial environment, some live in aquatic environments both fresh water and marine.

2. The mycelium is well developed , branched with simple septum.
3. Majority of them are saprophytes but few parasites are also known (Powdery mildew - Erysiphe ).
4. Asexual reproduction takes place by fission, budding , oidia , conidia, chlamydospore.
5. Sexual reproducition takes place by the fusion of two compatible nuclei .
6. Plasmogamy is not immediately followed by karyogamy , instead a dikaryotic condition is prolonged for several generations.
7. A special hyphae called ascogenous hyphae is formed.
8. A crozier is formed when the tip of the ascogenous hyphase recurves forming a hooked cell. The two nuclei in the penultimate cell of the hypha fuse to form a diploid nucleus. This cell form young ascus.
9. The diploid nucleus undergo meiotic division to produce four haploid haploid nuclei , which further divide mitotically to form eight nuclei . The nucleus gets organised into 8 ascospores.
10. The ascospores are found inside a bag like structure called ascus. Due to the presence of ascus, this group is popularly called ..Sacfungi...
11. Asci gets surrounded by sterile hyphae forming fruit body called ascocarp.
12. There are 4 types of ascocarps namely Cleistothecium ( Completely closed), Perithecium (Flask shaped with ostiole), Apothecium (Cup shaped , open type ) and Pseudothecium.