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Ambrosia Fungi
Ambrosia fungi are fungal symbionts of ambrosia beetles including the polyphagous and Kuroshio shot hole borers. There are a few dozen species described ambrosia fungi, currently placed in polyphyletic genera ''Ambrosiella'', '' Rafaellea'' and '' Dryadomyces'' (all from Ophiostomatales The Ophiostomatales are an order of fungi in the class Sordariomycetes. They are commonly symbionts to insect species, which can be found in numerous cases, including some termites and many bark beetles A bark beetle is the common name for th ..., Ascomycota). Probably many more species remain to be discovered. Little is known about ecology of ambrosia fungi, as well as about their specificity to ambrosia beetle species. Ambrosia fungi are thought to be dependent on transport and inoculation provided by their beetle symbionts, as they have not been found in any other habitat. All ambrosia fungi are probably asexual and clonal.Malloch, D., and M. Blackwell. 1993. Dispersal biology of ophios ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fungus
A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from the other eukaryotic kingdoms, which by one traditional classification include Plantae, Animalia, Protozoa, and Chromista. A characteristic that places fungi in a different kingdom from plants, bacteria, and some protists is chitin in their cell walls. Fungi, like animals, are heterotrophs; they acquire their food by absorbing dissolved molecules, typically by secreting digestive enzymes into their environment. Fungi do not photosynthesize. Growth is their means of mobility, except for spores (a few of which are flagellated), which may travel through the air or water. Fungi are the principal decomposers in ecological systems. These and other differences place fungi in a single group of related organisms, named the ''Eumycota'' (''true f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Symbiont
Symbiosis (from Greek , , "living together", from , , "together", and , bíōsis, "living") is any type of a close and long-term biological interaction between two different biological organisms, be it mutualistic, commensalistic, or parasitic. The organisms, each termed a symbiont, must be of different species. In 1879, Heinrich Anton de Bary defined it as "the living together of unlike organisms". The term was subject to a century-long debate about whether it should specifically denote mutualism, as in lichens. Biologists have now abandoned that restriction. Symbiosis can be obligatory, which means that one or more of the symbionts depend on each other for survival, or facultative (optional), when they can generally live independently. Symbiosis is also classified by physical attachment. When symbionts form a single body it is called conjunctive symbiosis, while all other arrangements are called disjunctive symbiosis."symbiosis." Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ambrosia Beetle
Ambrosia beetles are beetles of the weevil subfamilies Scolytinae and Platypodinae ( Coleoptera, Curculionidae), which live in nutritional symbiosis with ambrosia fungi. The beetles excavate tunnels in dead, stressed, and healthy trees in which they cultivate fungal gardens, their sole source of nutrition. After landing on a suitable tree, an ambrosia beetle excavates a tunnel in which it releases spores of its fungal symbiont. The fungus penetrates the plant's xylem tissue, extracts nutrients from it, and concentrates the nutrients on and near the surface of the beetle gallery. Ambrosia fungi are typically poor wood degraders, and instead utilize less demanding nutrients. The majority of ambrosia beetles colonize xylem (sapwood and/or heartwood) of recently dead trees, but some attack stressed trees that are still alive, and a few species attack healthy trees.Hulcr, J. and Stelinski, L.L., 2017. The ambrosia symbiosis: From evolutionary ecology to practical management. Annu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polyphagous Shot Hole Borer
''Euwallacea fornicatus'' is a species complex consisting of multiple cryptic species of ambrosia beetles (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae: Xyleborini), known as an invasive species in California, Israel and South Africa. The species has also been unintentionally introduced into exotic greenhouses in several European countries. As the rest of the ambrosia beetles, ''E. fornicatus'' larvae and adults feed on a symbiotic fungus ('' Fusarium euwallaceae'') carried in a specific structure called mycangium. In ''E. fornicatus'', the mycangium is located in the mandible. The combination of massive numbers of beetles with the symbiotic fungus kills trees, even though the fungus alone is a weak pathogen. ''Euwallacea fornicatus'' breeds in various live hosts and is considered a severe pest of several economically important plants, such as: tea (''Camellia sinensis''), avocado (''Persea americana''), citrus (''Citrus'' spp.) and cacao (''Theobroma cacao''). Identification Adult ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kuroshio Shot Hole Borer
''Euwallacea fornicatus'' is a species complex consisting of multiple cryptic species of ambrosia beetles (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae: Xyleborini), known as an invasive species in California, Israel and South Africa. The species has also been unintentionally introduced into exotic greenhouses in several European countries. As the rest of the ambrosia beetles, ''E. fornicatus'' larvae and adults feed on a symbiotic fungus (''List of Fusarium species, Fusarium euwallaceae'') carried in a specific structure called mycangium. In ''E. fornicatus'', the mycangium is located in the mandible. The combination of massive numbers of beetles with the symbiotic fungus kills trees, even though the fungus alone is a weak pathogen. ''Euwallacea fornicatus'' breeds in various live hosts and is considered a severe pest of several economically important plants, such as: tea (''Camellia sinensis''), avocado (''Persea americana''), citrus (''Citrus'' spp.) and cacao (''Theobroma cacao''). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polyphyletic
A polyphyletic group is an assemblage of organisms or other evolving elements that is of mixed evolutionary origin. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as homoplasies, which are explained as a result of convergent evolution. The arrangement of the members of a polyphyletic group is called a polyphyly .. ource for pronunciation./ref> It is contrasted with monophyly and paraphyly. For example, the biological characteristic of warm-bloodedness evolved separately in the ancestors of mammals and the ancestors of birds; "warm-blooded animals" is therefore a polyphyletic grouping. Other examples of polyphyletic groups are algae, C4 photosynthetic plants, and edentates. Many taxonomists aim to avoid homoplasies in grouping taxa together, with a goal to identify and eliminate groups that are found to be polyphyletic. This is often the stimulus for major revisions of the classification schemes. Researchers concerned more with ecology than with systema ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ambrosiella
''Ambrosiella'' is a genus of ambrosia fungi within the family Ceratocystidaceae. It was circumscribed by mycologists Josef Adolph von Arx and Grégoire L. Hennebert in 1965 with '' Ambrosiella xylebori'' as the type species. All ''Ambrosiella'' species are obligate symbionts of ambrosia beetles. Several former species were moved to ''Raffaelea ''Raffaelea'' is a genus of ambrosia fungi in the family Ophiostomataceae. It was circumscribed by mycologists Josef Adolph von Arx and Grégoire L. Hennebert in 1965 with '' Raffaelea ambrosiae'' as the type species. The genus is named in hon ...'', '' Hyalorhinocladiella'', or '' Phialophoropsis'' and there are nine species recognized . One species, ''Ambrosiella cleistominuta'', has been observed to produce a fertile sexual state with cleistothecious ascomata. Species *'' Ambrosiella batrae'' *'' Ambrosiella beaveri'' *'' Ambrosiella catenulata'' *'' Ambrosiella cleistominuta'' *'' Ambrosiella grosmanniae'' *'' Ambrosiella hartig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ophiostomatales
The Ophiostomatales are an order of fungi in the class Sordariomycetes. They are commonly symbionts to insect species, which can be found in numerous cases, including some termites and many bark beetles A bark beetle is the common name for the subfamily of beetles Scolytinae. Previously, this was considered a distinct family (Scolytidae), but is now understood to be a specialized clade of the "true weevil" family ( Curculionidae). Although t .... In the cases of most beetle symbioses, the Ophiostomatales fungi is carried in mycangia, which help keep fungal inoculants close to the beetle at all times. In some cases, the fungi are the main source of food for the beetles. In others, the relationship is not as clear. References Ascomycota orders {{Sordariomycetes-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ascomycota
Ascomycota is a phylum of the kingdom Fungi that, together with the Basidiomycota, forms the subkingdom Dikarya. Its members are commonly known as the sac fungi or ascomycetes. It is the largest phylum of Fungi, with over 64,000 species. The defining feature of this fungal group is the " ascus" (), a microscopic sexual structure in which nonmotile spores, called ascospores, are formed. However, some species of the Ascomycota are asexual, meaning that they do not have a sexual cycle and thus do not form asci or ascospores. Familiar examples of sac fungi include morels, truffles, brewers' and bakers' yeast, dead man's fingers, and cup fungi. The fungal symbionts in the majority of lichens (loosely termed "ascolichens") such as ''Cladonia'' belong to the Ascomycota. Ascomycota is a monophyletic group (it contains all descendants of one common ancestor). Previously placed in the Deuteromycota along with asexual species from other fungal taxa, asexual (or anamorphic) ascomyce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asexual Reproduction
Asexual reproduction is a type of reproduction that does not involve the fusion of gametes or change in the number of chromosomes. The offspring that arise by asexual reproduction from either unicellular or multicellular organisms inherit the full set of genes of their single parent and thus the newly created individual is genetically and physically similar to the parent or an exact clone of the parent. Asexual reproduction is the primary form of reproduction for single-celled organisms such as archaea and eubacteria, bacteria. Many Eukaryote, eukaryotic organisms including plants, animals, and Fungus, fungi can also reproduce asexually. In vertebrates, the most common form of asexual reproduction is parthenogenesis, which is typically used as an alternative to sexual reproduction in times when reproductive opportunities are limited. Komodo dragons and some monitor lizards can also reproduce asexually. While all prokaryotes reproduce without the formation and fusion of gametes, m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
