Club Fungi

There are over 25,000 species of club fungi. Club fungi include puffballs and shelf fungi, rusts and smuts, coral fungi, stinkhorns, edible mushrooms (Agaricus brunnescens), and the death cap mushroom (Amanita phalloides).

Many are symbionts with roots of forest trees. Some saprobic types decompose plant debris, while others destroy field crops.

The common mushroom is the aboveground portion of the fungus that produces spores (called basidiospores) on the gills of the cap at the top of a stalk.

When spores land on a suitable site, they germinate to produce extensive underground mycelia that then reproduce sexually, resulting in a dikaryotic stage.

Life Cycle:

• Hyphal cells of two mating strains meet.
• The cytoplasm fuses to form dikaryotic mycelium.
• Every cell contains two nuclei.
• Reproductive structure (basidiocarp) forms.
• Mushroom is a type of basidiocarp.
• Club-shaped, spore-bearing structures form on basidiocarp.
• Nuclei in these cells fuse to produce a diploid zygote.
• Zygote undergoes meiosis to produce haploid spores.
• Spores give rise to haploid mycelia.

This animation (Audio - Important) describes the life cycle of a club fungus.

REVIEW: Mushrooms are members of which of the following?
Answer club fungi