Mucoromycota is a division within the

kingdom Kingdom commonly refers to: * A monarchy ruled by a king or queen * Kingdom (biology), a category in biological taxonomy Kingdom may also refer to: Arts and media Television * ''Kingdom'' (British TV series), a 2007 British television drama s ...

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 ...

. They include a diverse group of various

mold A mold () or mould () is one of the structures certain fungus, fungi can form. The dust-like, colored appearance of molds is due to the formation of Spore#Fungi, spores containing Secondary metabolite#Fungal secondary metabolites, fungal seco ...

s, including the common bread molds ''

Mucor ''Mucor'' is a microbial genus of approximately 40 species of molds in the family Mucoraceae. Species are commonly found in soil, digestive systems, plant surfaces, some cheeses like Tomme de Savoie, rotten vegetable matter and iron oxide re ...

'' and ''

Rhizopus ''Rhizopus'' is a genus of common saprophytic fungi on plants and specialized parasites on animals. They are found in a wide variety of organic substances, including "mature fruits and vegetables", jellies, syrups, leather, bread, peanuts, and ...

''. It is a sister phylum to

Dikarya Dikarya is a subkingdom of Fungi that includes the divisions Ascomycota and Basidiomycota, both of which in general produce dikaryons, may be filamentous or unicellular, but are always without flagella. The Dikarya are most of the so-called " ...

. It consists of mainly

mycorrhizal fungi A mycorrhiza (from Greek μύκης ', "fungus", and ῥίζα ', "root"; pl. mycorrhizae, mycorrhiza or mycorrhizas) is a symbiotic association between a fungus and a plant. The term mycorrhiza refers to the role of the fungus in the plant ...

, root endophytes, and plant decomposers; Glomeromycotina, Mortierellomycotina, and Mucoromycotina. Informally known as zygomycetes I, Mucoromycota includes Mucoromycotina, Mortierellomycotina, and Glomeromycotina. Mucoromycotina and Glomeromycotina can form

mycorrhiza A mycorrhiza (from Greek μύκης ', "fungus", and ῥίζα ', "root"; pl. mycorrhizae, mycorrhiza or mycorrhizas) is a symbiotic association between a fungus and a plant. The term mycorrhiza refers to the role of the fungus in the plant ...

-like relationships with nonvascular plants. Mucoromycota contain multiple mycorrhizal lineages, root

endophytes An endophyte is an endosymbiont, often a bacterium or fungus, that lives within a plant for at least part of its life cycle without causing apparent disease. Endophytes are ubiquitous and have been found in all species of plants studied to date; h ...

, and decomposers of plant-based carbon sources. Mucoromycotina species known as mycoparasites, or putative parasites of arthropods are like saprobes. When Mucoromycota infect animals, they are seen as

opportunistic pathogens An opportunistic infection is an infection caused by pathogens (bacteria, fungi, parasites or viruses) that take advantage of an opportunity not normally available. These opportunities can stem from a variety of sources, such as a weakened immune ...

. Mucoromycotina are fast growing fungi and early colonizers of carbon rich substrates. Mortierellomycotina are common soil fungi that occur as root endophytes of woody plants and are isolated as saprobes. Glomeromycotina live in soil, forming a network of

hyphae A hypha (; ) is a long, branching, filamentous structure of a fungus, oomycete, or actinobacterium. In most fungi, hyphae are the main mode of vegetative growth, and are collectively called a mycelium. Structure A hypha consists of one or ...

but depend on organic carbon from host plants. In exchange the

arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi An arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) (plural ''mycorrhizae'', a.k.a. ''endomycorrhiza'') is a type of mycorrhiza in which the symbiont fungus (''AM fungi'', or AMF) penetrates the cortical cells of the roots of a vascular plant forming arbuscules. (N ...

provide nutrients to the plant.

Reproduction

Known reproduction states of Mucoromycota are

zygospore A zygospore is a diploid reproductive stage in the life cycle of many fungi and protists. Zygospores are created by the nuclear fusion of haploid cells. In fungi, zygospores are formed in zygosporangia after the fusion of specialized budding struc ...

production and

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 fu ...

. Zygospores can have decorations on their surface and range up to several millimeters in diameter. Asexual reproduction typically involves the production of sporangiospores or chlamydospores. Multicellular sporcaps are present within Mucoromycotina, Mortierellomycotina and as aggregations of spore-producing in species of Glomeromycotina. Shown in Mucorales, sexual reproduction is under the control of mating type genes, sexP and sexM, which regulate the production of pheromones required for the maturation of hyphae into gametangia. The sexP gene is expressed during vegetative growth and matting while the sexM gene is expressed during mating. Glomeromycotina sexual reproduction is unknown. However asexual chlamydospore spores can be created terminally, laterally, or

intercalary Intercalation may refer to: *Intercalation (chemistry), insertion of a molecule (or ion) into layered solids such as graphite * Intercalation (timekeeping), insertion of a leap day, week or month into some calendar years to make the calendar foll ...

on specialized hyphae. Species of Glomeromycotina produce

coenocytic A coenocyte () is a multinucleate cell which can result from multiple nuclear divisions without their accompanying cytokinesis, in contrast to a syncytium, which results from cellular aggregation followed by dissolution of the cell membranes insid ...

hyphae that can have bacterial

endosymbionts An ''endosymbiont'' or ''endobiont'' is any organism that lives within the body or cells of another organism most often, though not always, in a mutualistic relationship. (The term endosymbiosis is from the Greek: ἔνδον ''endon'' "within" ...

. Mortierellomycotina reproduce asexually by

sporangia A sporangium (; from Late Latin, ) is an enclosure in which spores are formed. It can be composed of a single cell or can be multicellular. Virtually all plants, fungi, and many other lineages form sporangia at some point in their life cyc ...

that either lack or have a reduced columella, which support the sporangium. Species of Mortierellomycotina only form microscopic colonies, but some make multicellular sporocarps. Mucoromycotina sexual reproduction is by prototypical zygospore formation and asexual reproduction and involves the large production of sporangia.

Morphology

Mucoromycotina contain discoidal hemispherical spindle pole bodies. Although spindle pole bodies function as microtubule organizing centers, they lack remnants of the centrioles’ characteristic 9+2 microtubule arrangement. Species of Mucoromycotina and Mortierellomycotina produce large diameter, coenocytic hyphae. Glomeromycotina also form coenocytic hyphae with highly branched, narrow hyphal arbuscules in host cells. When septations occur in Mucoromycota they are formed at the base of reproductive structures.

Production of lipids, polyphosphates, and carotenoids

Mucoromycota’s metabolism can utilize many substrates that are from various nitrogen and phosphorus resources to produce lipids, chitin, polyphosphates, and carotenoids. They have been found to co-produce metabolites in a single fermentation process like polyphosphates and lipids. The overproduction of

chitin Chitin ( C8 H13 O5 N)n ( ) is a long-chain polymer of ''N''-acetylglucosamine, an amide derivative of glucose. Chitin is probably the second most abundant polysaccharide in nature (behind only cellulose); an estimated 1 billion tons of chit ...

from Mucoromycota fungi can be accomplished by limiting inorganic phosphorus. Mucoromycota are capable of accumulating high amounts of lipids in their cell biomass which allows the fungi to produce polyunsaturated fatty acids and

carotenoids Carotenoids (), also called tetraterpenoids, are yellow, orange, and red organic pigments that are produced by plants and algae, as well as several bacteria, and fungi. Carotenoids give the characteristic color to pumpkins, carrots, parsnips, ...

. They have been found to induce antimicrobial activity from fungal crude total lipids. The high production of lipids from Mucoromycota have the potential for use in biodiesel production.

Gallery

File:Mortierella.Yosemite.jpg, ''Mortierella'' from Yosemite File:Mucor spec. - Lindsey 1b.jpg, Mucor

References

External links