BIO 335 Study Guide – Lecture 11 and 12
Ascomycotan Fungi Part I
Reading:
TEXT, Chapter 4
Check Dr. Fungus website for info on dermatomycoses and drug therapies.
Objectives: Know what a prototunicate ascus is and where you would find fungi
with prototunicate asci. Learn about dermatomycoses. Understand what
synanamorphs are and how the two synanamorphs of Ophiostoma ulmi are
specialized for dispersal – and spread – of Dutch Elm Disease.
Study Questions:
1. Where will you find fungi that digest keratin?
2. Which fungi cause athlete’s food and ringworm? Explain the cause of the
annoying symptoms.
3. Explain why dermatophytes causing dermatomycoses often to not reproduce
sexually – and explain how it is that many do not produce any spores (sexual or
asexual) but manage to transmit from old host to new hosts.
4. Go to tolweb.org to answer the following: are cleistothecia more evolutionarily
primitive than perithecia or apothecia?
5. Which synanamorphs of Ophiostoma ulmi are vectored by bark beetles and
which synanamorphs are carried through the tree? Given what you know about
how the disease spreads, what is the most sensible thing to do if an elm tree dies
in your yard and you want to protect the other elm trees nearby?
6. What is idea behind the save-the-elms project at the University of Guelph?
Keywords:
Dermatomycoses, cleistothecium, prototunicate, synanamorph, anamorph,
teleomorph, synnema, conidium, mitospore, aflatoxin
Lecture 12 – Ascomycotan Fungi Part II
Reading: TEXT, Chapter 4; http://www.forestpathology.org/ Read about
Chestnut Blight and other tree diseases.
All three links are REQUIRED reading:
http://www.exoticpests.gc.ca/dis_mal_details_eng.asp?pestType=dis&lang=&geI
D=10
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/18/science/18trees.html?pagewanted=all
http://www.thestar.com/news/sciencetech/environment/article/713440-researchers-try-to-save-stricken-elms
Objectives:
Know what a unitunicate ascus is and be able to recognize the characteristic
features of fungi when you see them in the field in the Spaeriales, Clavicipitales,
Hypocreales, Pezizales and Leotiales. What features make both Chestnut Blight
and Dutch Elm Disease successful invading species?
1. What features make Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Neurospora crassa useful
in research as model research systems?
2. What is the relationship of sclerotial anamorphs to the disease “ergotism”?
3. What is foolish seedling disease and which plant growth hormone is
associated with it?
4. How does the evolution of sequestrate, hypogeous forms in the truffles
compare with the evolution of false truffles like Rhizopogon in the
Agaricomycetes?
5. How are ascospores discharged forcibly from the unitunicate ascus?
6. What features make both Chestnut Blight and Dutch Elm Disease successful
invading species?
7. Millions of acres of trees are dead in BC, Alberta, and in the Western US.
What is the role of fungi in this and how does this fungus assist the bark beetles
in a kind of mutualism? What forest management strategies and environmental
factors are facilitating this historic outbreak of forest disease? Is there any
climate change aspect here?
Keywords:
Stroma, hymenium, paraphyses, hypovirulence and Chestnut Blight, epigeous,
hypogeous, sequestrate