#cryptomycota

[battle-of-the-taxons]

PHYLA: ROUND TWO

Basidiomycota vs Cryptomycota

Basidiomycota

Cryptomycota

Voting ended onFeb 7, 2024

Propaganda under here:

BASIDIOMYCOTA

These are one of the main groups of fungi that everyone knows! They're best identified by their fruiting bodies, on which their microscopic spore-producing structures, basidia, rest on. Basidiomycota makes up 1/3 of all fungi with 32 000 described species, and they're both terrestrial and aquatic! Some fungi in this group can be mutualistic with insects, some contribute to rot and degredation of lignin in wood, and some (P. ostreatus) are carnivourous and eat nematodes! And most importantly, many are edible or have medicinal qualities.

CRYPTOMYCOTA

Cryptomycota (also known as Rozellomycota) are a very understudied group of fungi. They are likely to be one of the first emerging fungi groups, and lack a chitin cell wall which is a common fungi trait. This allows them to be parasitic within cells (largely other fungi). They infect cells by attaching to hosts and hardening on the outside, inserting an "infection tube" into the host, and squeezing their innards through! They feed on the cell's cytoplasm and eventually fill it completely. They are found in soil, both terrestrial and aquatic.

[microculture]

Fungi found in UK pond could be part of a previously undiscovered phylum

Thomas Richards, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Exeter, UK, and his colleagues have called the fungi the cryptomycota, or 'hidden fungi', because they have remained undiscovered until now, despite being present in common environments. 

Jones, M. D. M. et al. Nature doi:10.1038/nature09984 (2011).