The Microascales are an

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of d ...

fungi 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 ...

in the class

Sordariomycetes Sordariomycetes is a class of fungi in the subdivision Pezizomycotina (Ascomycota), consisting of 28 orders, 90 families, 1344 genera. Sordariomycetes is from the Latin sordes (filth) because some species grow in animal feces, though growth habit ...

, subclass Hypocreomycetidae. This is a relatively small order of mostly

saprobic Saprotrophic nutrition or lysotrophic nutrition is a process of chemoheterotrophic extracellular digestion involved in the processing of decayed (dead or waste) organic matter. It occurs in saprotrophs, and is most often associated with fungi (f ...

fungi that live in soil, rotting vegetation and dung. Some species are

plant pathogen Plant pathology (also phytopathology) is the scientific study of diseases in plants caused by pathogens (infectious organisms) and environmental conditions (physiological factors). Organisms that cause infectious disease include fungi, oomyc ...

s, such as ''

Ceratocystis fimbriata ''Ceratocystis fimbriata'' is a fungus and a plant pathogen, attacking such diverse plants as the sweet potato (''black rot'') and the tapping panels of the Para rubber tree (''moldy rot''). It is a diverse species that attacks a wide variety of ...

'', transmitted by

beetles Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

to living trees and causing cacao wilt and many other economically important diseases. Species in the genus ''

Pseudallescheria ''Pseudallescheria'' is a genus of fungi in the family Microascaceae. See also * Pseudallescheriasis ''Pseudallescheria boydii'' is a species of fungus classified in the Ascomycota. It is associated with some forms of eumycetoma/ maduromycosi ...

'' (family Microascaceae) are pathogenic to humans The order was circumscribed in 1980.

Description

The Microascales are characterized by a lack of stroma, black perithecial

ascomata An ascocarp, or ascoma (), is the fruiting body ( sporocarp) of an ascomycete phylum fungus. It consists of very tightly interwoven hyphae and millions of embedded asci, each of which typically contains four to eight ascospores. Ascocarps are mo ...

with long necks or rarely with cleistothecial ascomata that lack

paraphyses Paraphyses are erect sterile filament-like support structures occurring among the reproductive apparatuses of fungi, ferns, bryophytes and some thallophytes. The singular form of the word is paraphysis. In certain fungi, they are part of the fe ...

. They have roughly spherical and short-lived

asci ASCI or Asci may refer to: * Advertising Standards Council of India * Asci, the plural of ascus, in fungal anatomy * Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative * American Society for Clinical Investigation * Argus Sour Crude Index * Association of ...

that develop singly or in chains. Nonseptate, colorless

ascospore An ascus (; ) is the sexual spore-bearing cell produced in ascomycete fungi. Each ascus usually contains eight ascospores (or octad), produced by meiosis followed, in most species, by a mitotic cell division. However, asci in some genera or s ...

s often have ornamenting ridges or wings. The

anamorph In mycology, the terms teleomorph, anamorph, and holomorph apply to portions of the life cycles of fungi in the phyla Ascomycota and Basidiomycota: *Teleomorph: the sexual reproductive stage (morph), typically a fruiting body. *Anamorph: an ase ...

s of the family Microascaceae produce percurrently proliferating conidiogenous cells (annellides) and sometimes chlamydospore-like or aleurioconidial synanamorphs; these are classified mostly in the genera ''

Scopulariopsis ''Scopulariopsis'' is a genus of teleomorph, anamorph and holomorph, anamorphic fungi that are saprobic and pathogenic to animals. The widespread genus contains 22 species. ''Scopulariopsis'' belongs to the group Hyphomycetes. These species are c ...

'', '' Graphium'' and ''

Scedosporium ''Scedosporium'' is a genus (biology), genus of fungi in the family Microascaceae. The genus shed the alternative name ''Pseudallescheria'' as the "One Fungus, One Name" principle overtook the previous dual naming system, which had a distinct na ...

''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q148738 Ascomycota orders