Albany Gonzalez & Sara Ramirez
Period 8
•Imperfect fungi is called
Deuteromycota.
•It is referred to as imperfect, not
because the organism it self is
flawed, but because scientist’s
understanding of its life cycle are.
•Deuteromycota are fungi that
cannot be placed in other phyla
because it has never been observed
during a sexual phase in its life
cycles.
•Imperfect fungi is one of the four
major groups in the kingdom of
fungi.
-Fun fact:
Deuteromycota is
Greek for “second
fungi.”
• Fungi are usually
classified by the
sexual phase of their
life cycle
•A majority of
imperfect fungi
closely resemble
ascomycetes,
basidiomycetes, and
zygomycetes.
• Deuteromycota can be
classified in two ways:
• First, their multicellular
tissue is similar to
the hyphae of sac fungi and
club fungi.
• Second, they have erect
hyphae with
asexual spores, called
conidiophores, which are
similar to those of the sac
fungi and club fungi.
• Most imperfect fungi are
believed to be related to the
sac fungi because their
conidiophores closely
resemble those produced by
the sac fungi during their
sexual phase.
• The imperfect fungi are not
placed in the Ascomycota
phylum because
classification of that group
is based on the morphology
of sexual structures which
the Deuteromycota do not
have.
•Penicillium is the best known fungus
in this phyla.
•Some species of Penicillum appear
as pathogenic, blue-green molds on
fruits, vegetables, and cheeses. Many
other species are important in the
making of cheeses, such as blue
cheese, Roquefort, and Camembert.
•The best known product of
Penicillium is Penicillin which was
the first widely-used antibiotic.
•The general relationship of the species of
Deuteromycota to fungi have been set up or
found by comparing their DNA sequence.
But the function of how they grow and
reproduce among themselves are still remain
unknown.
•There are around 25,000 fungus species
that are grouped in this phylum.
• Some examples of Imperfect fungi
include athlete’s foot, smut, ringworm,
and aflatoxin.
•Species is called
Trichophyton interdigidale.
•Occurs on the bottom of
people’s feet because of the
warm moist skin caused by
wearing socks and shoes all
the time in our society.
• The lack of ventilation to
the feet also allows the
fungus to grow quicker and
easier.
• Can be extremely resistant
to treatments depending on
how the Athlete’s foot is
formed.
•It is not very contagious. But
if not treated early, it could
spread throughout the foot.
• A smut is a group of
plant
parasitic fungi.
•They are biotrophic
pathogens causing disease in
a number of important crop
plants in agriculture.
• Multicellular and are
characterized by their large
numbers of telispores.
•They mostly form on corn,
barley, wheat, oats,
sugarcane, and forage
grasses. They first attack the
plant's reproductive system,
forming galls which darken
and burst, releasing
fungal spores which infect
other plants that are close to
them.
•Contagious fungus infection that can
affect the scalp, the body, the feet
(athlete's foot), or the nails.
•The name comes from a characteristic
that a Ringworm gives, where it looks like
a red ring that can appear on a person’s
skin. It is also called Tinea.
•You can get Ringworm infection by direct
skin to skin contact with an infected
person or pet, indirect contact with
something that an infected person or pet
has touched, and rarely, by contact with
soil.
•Ringworm can be treated with funguskilling medicine.
•Aflatoxin Fungi is a toxic
metabolite produced by
certain fungi in and on
foods.
• Aflatoxins often happen in
crops in the field before they
are harvested.
•Aflatoxins are often found
in milk, cheese, corn,
peanuts, cottonseed, nuts,
almonds, figs, spices, and
many other foods.
•Humans are exposed to
aflatoxins by eating foods
that are infected with
products of fungal growth.