Basidiomycota
Division of fungi / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Basidiomycota (/bəˌsɪdi.oʊmaɪˈkoʊtə/)[2] is one of two large divisions that, together with the Ascomycota, constitute the subkingdom Dikarya (often referred to as the "higher fungi") within the kingdom Fungi. Members are known as basidiomycetes.[3] More specifically, Basidiomycota includes these groups: agarics, puffballs, stinkhorns, bracket fungi, other polypores, jelly fungi, boletes, chanterelles, earth stars, smuts, bunts, rusts, mirror yeasts, and Cryptococcus, the human pathogenic yeast.
Basidiomycota | |
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Basidiomycetes from Ernst Haeckel's 1904 Kunstformen der Natur | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Fungi |
Subkingdom: | Dikarya |
Division: | Basidiomycota Moore, R.T. 1980[1] |
Subdivisions/Classes | |
Basidiomycota are filamentous fungi composed of hyphae (except for basidiomycota-yeast) and reproduce sexually via the formation of specialized club-shaped end cells called basidia that normally bear external meiospores (usually four). These specialized spores are called basidiospores.[4] However, some Basidiomycota are obligate asexual reproducers. Basidiomycota that reproduce asexually (discussed below) can typically be recognized as members of this division by gross similarity to others, by the formation of a distinctive anatomical feature (the clamp connection), cell wall components, and definitively by phylogenetic molecular analysis of DNA sequence data.