Ascomycota life cycle.
- Hyphae of + mating type fused with hypahe of –mating type.
- After fusion, plasmogamy occurs and reachers dikaryotic stage, the dikaryotic structures formed from dikaryotic ascus and hypha.
- The dikaryotic structure then undergoes karyogamy, forming diploid stage and the two nuclei in ascus fused to form a diploid zygote.
- The zygote undergoes meiosis, producing 4 haploid nuclei.
- Division occurs by mitosis, where the haploid nuclei now become 8 nuclei.
- These cells are ascospores, the ascospores are then released, germinate and form hyphae that are disseminated in environment and start ne mycelia.
- Conidia are modified into conidiophores, which the spores are separated by septa.
- Each spore, known as ascopore is released.
- + Strain and – strain mating type from ascospore germinate and form female and male gametangia, known as ascogonia and antheridia respectively.
REFERENCES
Raven, P. H., & Johnson, G. B. (2002). Fungi. Biology. Retrieved from http://www.mhhe.com/.../gra.../raven06b/other/raven06_36.pdf
Raven, P. H., & Johnson, G. B. (2002). Fungi. Biology. Retrieved from http://www.mhhe.com/.../gra.../raven06b/other/raven06_36.pdf