DESCRIPTION OF THE PHYLUM NEOCALLIMASTIGOMYCOTA (JAMES ET AL. 2006)
| EUKARYA> OPISTHOKONTA> UNIKONTA> FUNGI> BASAL FUNGI> NEOCALLIMASTIGOMYCOTA |
NEOCALLIMASTIGOMYCOTA LINKS
| Neocallimastigomycota (NE-o-ka-li-go-ma-st-go-mi-KO-ta] is made of four Greek roots that mean new (neos-νεός), good or beautiful (kalos-καλός), whips (mastigio-μαστίγιο), and fungus (mykes -μύκης), respectively. The reference may be to the multiflagellate zoospore of the fungus (see Figure B). |
INTRODUCTION TO THE NEOCALLIMASTIGOMYCOTA
The anaerobic rumen fungi inhabit the rumens of large ungulate mammals. They form small mycelia of coenocytic (text with tooltip) Siphonous (adj) describes a filament that has no cross walls. hyphae (Figure 1) that disperse through the production of multiflagellated, posteriorly-directed flagella (Figure 2), sometimes with an associated barren basal body (text with tooltip) A basal body (kinetosome) is called barren if it is never associated with a flagellum. . The sporangia can be clustered (Figure 3) on small compact mycelia or dispersed. They are notable in that they have hydrogenosomes (text with tooltip) Hydrogenosomes are symbiotic bacteria or organelles that generate hydrogen as a kind of anaerobic mitochondrion. rather than mitochondria. Indeed, it was through examination of the hydrogenosomes of Neocallimastix particiarum that van der Giezen et al. (1997) were able to demonstrate that hydrogenosomes were reduced mitochondria, which were adapted to an anoxic environment.
This group as a separate phylum was established by Hibbett et al. (2008). So far, they have been found in the gut contents of mammals, but they likely will be found in other anoxic environments such as wetland soils.
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| FIGURE 1. Mycelium of Neocallimastix. Image from www.bsu.edu/classes/ruch/msa/wubah.html | FIGURE 2. A multiflagellate zoospore of Neocallimastix. Image from www.bsu.edu/classes/ruch/msa/wubah.html | FIGURE 3. Small mycelium of Caecomyces with multiple sporangia. Image from www.bsu.edu/classes/ruch/msa/wubah.html |
 | FIGURE 4. A cladogram showing the relationships between Neocallimastigomycota (taxon in the shaded box) and the other fungal taxa. The topology is supported by James et al. (2006) and Porter et al. (2011). |
SYSTEMATICS OF THE NEOCALLIMASTIGOMYCOTA
From the time of their discovery (Yarlett et al. 1986), the anaerobic rumen fungi emerged as distinct from the other “chytrids” in that they possessed degenerate mitochondria called hydrogenosomes (Yarlett et al. 1986; van der Giezen et al. 1997). When the chytrids (sensu latu) were examined and found to be polyphyletic (e.g. Lutzoni et al. 2004; James et al. 2006 a & b) with three separate lineages, Hibbett et al. (2007) raised each of the lineages to phylum-level (Figure 4). The following system is from Hibbett et al. (2007).
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| By Jack R. Holt and Carlos A. Iudica. Last revised: 04/23/2013 |
