Parasexual Cycle in Deuteromycotina

DEUTEROMYCOTINA : THE •• Parasexual cycle was first discovered by Pontecorvo and Roper of University of Glasgow in 1952 in Aspergillus nidulans the, imperfect stage of
Emericella nidulans. Parasexuality can be defined as a phenomenon in which the three processes, e.g., plasmogamy, karyogamy and meiosis occurs

FUNGI IMPERFECTI
The Subdivision Deuteromycotina includes those fungi in which only asexual or imperfect
stages are known and sexual or perfect stages are not yet recorded. They are also called Fungi
imperfecti. This subdivision includes about 600 genera and over 20,000 species, but this number
is now decreasing as members previously included in Deuteromycotina are being transferred to
appropriate groups as soon as their perfect sexual stages are discovered. Thus, this subdivision
is a purely artificial and temporary assemblage of fungal species waiting to be included in
appropriate groups after the discovery of their perfect stages.
General Characteristics of Deuteromycotina
•• The members belonging to this group are saprophytes or parasites.
•• The mycelium is well developed and profusely branched with perforated septa.
•• The hyphae may be inter or intracellular and the cells are multinucleate.
•• The reproduction takes place by asexual means only and sexual stages are not known.
•• Asexual reproduction takes place by oidia or conidia formation. The conidia are non-motile structures which develop exogenously on conidiophores.
•• Conidiophores are either free or are formed in some special types of fruiting bodies such as synnemata, acervuli, sporodochia and pycnidia.
•• Some members show parasexuality.
at an unspecified time and stages in the life of a fungus.
Several steps involved in the process of parasexuality:
•• Formation of heterokaryotic mycelium - Existence of nuclei of different strains in the protoplasm of the cells of a hypha is termed as heterokaryosis
and such hypha is called ‘heterokaryotic’. Heterokaryosis generally occurs in the thallus of a fungus by following ways : by anastomosis (plasmogamy
between two genetically different hyphae), by mutation of one or more nuclei in a homokaryotic mycelium by diploidisation, etc.
•• Karyogamy - The fusion of haploid nuclei of similar or dissimlar genotypes results in the formation of homozygous or heterozygous diploid nucleus
respectively. If the genotype of unlike nuclei present in the heterokaryotic mycelium are A and B, then five different types of nuclei may be formed
(haploid A and B,homozygous diploid AA and BB and heterozygous diploid nuclei AB).
•• Multiplication of diploid nuclei - These five types of nuclei multiply, but the diploid nuclei are present in much smaller number than the haploid nuclei.
•• Occasional mitotic crossing over - Mitotic crossing over takes place during multiplication of diploid nuclei and new gene combinations are
formed. These recombintions which are dependent on the existence of heterokaryosis and give the fungus some of the advantages of sexuality within the
parasexual cycle.
•• Sorting out of diploid nuclei - In those fungi which produce uninucleate conidia, sorting out of the diploid nucleus occurs by their incorporation
into conidia. Conidium which contains diploid nucleus germinates to produce diploid mycelium. Diploid strains of several important imperfect fungi
have been isolated.
•• Haploidisation of diploid nuclei - Occasionally, some hyphae of diploid mycelium form haploid conidia which form haploid mycelia on germination.
The formation of haploid conidia by diploid mycelium indicates that haploidisation occurs in some diploid nuclei.
•• Sorting of new haploid strains - Some diploid nuclei undergo haploidisation in the mycelium and are sorted out by incorporation of haploid nuclei
in the uninucleate conidia. Some of these haploid strains are genotypically different from their parents because of mitotic recombinations.
Strain 1
Deuteromycotina Members Anastomosis

Fruiting Bodies as Potent Pathogens Step (i)

•• Conidiophores get assembled in a variety of ways to form different types of asexual fruiting bodies. These are: •• Many species of Deuteromycotina are
pathogenic to plants. Many are responsible Heterokaryon
Strain 2 Step (ii)
Synnema Sporodochium Pycnidium Acervulus for the degradation of foods, including decay Unlike
from rots on vegetables and fruits. Some of the Step (vi)
•• The whole fructification resembles a long •• Sporodochium is •• It is a flask shaped fruiting •• It is a saucer shaped nuclei
Sorting out of
feather cluster or a brush. a hemispherical or common diseases caused by them are as follows. fuse
body whose cavity is lined by a structure consisting new haploid
•• Branched or unbranched conidiophores barrel-shaped asexual sterile pseudo-parenchymatous of stromatic mass of –• Red rot of sugarcane caused by nuclei through
arise very close to each other and are fruiting body. Its lower tissue comprising its wall, hyphae and fertile layer Colletotrichum falcatum. conidia Haploid
often united along a greater part of their or the basal part is a –• Early blight of potato caused by Alternaria conidia Diploid
called pycnidial wall. of conidiophores.
length to form dense fascicles. cushioned stoma like solani. conidia
•• Fertile layer consists of •• Conidiophores arise
•• This type of arrangement of mass of hyphae. very short conidiophores from a mat of closely –• Wilt of cotton caused by Fusarium
conidiophores is given the name •• Conidiophores which bear pycniospores or crowded hyphae oxysporum. Haploid conidia
corenium or synnema. constitute the upper –• Tikka disease of groundnut caused by
pycnidiospores at their tips, forming a small disc Sorting out of
•• Towards the upper end of synnema the part of sporodochium
Cercospora personata. diploid nuclei
conidiophores become free and diverge bearing conidia. lies in the cavity. The whole called stroma. Step (v)
to give rise to conidia. structure, i.e., cavity, wall •• The conidia are –• Leaf stripe of barley is caused by Haploidisation through diploid
and fertile layer constitute abstricted from the tips Helminthosporium gramineum. Step (iii) conidia
Recombinant diploid with
Conidia pycnidium. of conidiophores. –• Black point disease in wheat caused yellow or white conidia
Conidia Ostiole by Alternaria tenuis, Fusarium, Mitotic
Conidia Host crossing over
epidermis Helminthosporium, etc.
Conidiophores Hyphal
Conidia mat
Step (iv)

Conidiophores
Perfect Stages of Imperfect Fungi Fig.: Pontecorvo’s idea of parasexual cycle

Sporodochium Acervulus •• Several members, which were previously included in Deuteromycotina due to unknown sexual (perfect) stages, were later transferred to an
Synnema Pycnidium appropriate group when their perfect stages were recorded in nature or in artificial culture media. The following are few examples :
Imperfect stage Perfect stage
Classification
Alternaria solani Pleospora infectoria
The classification of Deuteromycetes is artificial, hence various taxa are known as form - order, form-family, form-genus, etc. On the basis of structure of the
asexual fruiting body and type of conidia, the group has been divided into following four orders. Cercospora cerasella Mycosphaerella cerasella
Cercospora personata Mycosphaerella berkeleyi
Order : Moniliales Order : Order : Melanoconiales Order : Mycelia Sterilia
Helminthosporium gramineum Pyrenophora graminea
Sphaeropsidales
•• This order is represented by about 10,000 •• The mycelium is internal and asexual •• It includes 20
Helminthosporium oryzae Cochliobolus miyabeanus
form-species. The mycelium is colourless or •• They produce fruiting bodies are acervulus type. genera and 200
black in colour. conidia in •• The acervuli are sub-epidermal and form-species. Colletotrichum falcatum Glomerella tucumanensis
•• Mycelia are septate and branched. pycnidia. develop beneath the host cuticle or •• The mycelium is
•• Conidia are produced directly on hyphal •• The pycnidia epidermis. sterile and conidia
cell or specialised hyphal cells called may be separate •• Usually they burst through the host are not formed. Economic Importance of Deuteromycotina
conidiophores. or joined by surface as the pigmented conidia mature. •• They reproduce
•• The conidiophores are usually free but stromatic tissue. •• Conidiophores are aggregated in a by sclerotia, rhizo- •• The member of Genus Penicillium are cultivated for the industrial manufacture of cheese (Penicillium roqueforti, Penicillium camemberti), antibiotics
sometimes they are assembled into spo- E.g., Phyllosticta, palisade like layer on the surface of morphs and other (Penicillium notatum, P. chrysogenum) and gluconic acid (Penicillium purpurogenum).
rodochium or synnemata. Macrophoma, stroma and conidia are abstricted singly vegetative means. •• Arthrobotrys oligospora and Dactylella cionopaga trap nematodes (microscopic roundworms that often infest the roots of crop plants) by forming hyphal
etc. or in chains. rings which constrict the nematode when stimulated by contact. Thereby, these Deuteromycotina reduce the disease incidence due to nematode of the
E.g., Cercospora, Fusarium, etc. E.g., Rhizoctonia crop plant.
E.g., Colletotrichum, Gloeosporium, etc. sterilia.