PHYLUM

CHYTRIDIOMYCOTA
PRESENTED BY
GROUP TWO
 PHYLUM CHYTRIODIOMYCOTA .
( ALLOMYCES(A WATER MOLD)
, SYNCHYTRIUM ENDOBIOTICUM(A PATHOGEN OF POTATO)
, NEOCALLIMASTIC (HABOURS THE GUT OF HERBIVORES)
 Chytriodiom(Khutridion) means a little pot
 The chytrids are the simplest and most primitive true fungi.
 Has only class Chytridiomycetes and three orders; Chytridiales,
Blastocadiales, and Monoblepharidales.
 Aerobic zoosporic fungi
saprotrophs and pathogens
 The phylum has morethan 700 species
 Produce motile zoospores and planogametes
 SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS
 flagellated zoospores at the posterior end

 undergo isomorphic alternation of generations

 produce zoospores asexually

 produce planogametes sexually

 heterotrophs (saprotrophs)

 coenoctyic ( no distinction between individual cells)

 cell wall contains chitin and b-glucan

 HABITAT

• They are predominantly aquatic organisms such as Allomyces

• Abundant in temperate and tropical regions due to high moisture
content
• They usually live as water molds on dead leaves, branches
• Abundant in soil eg synchytrium endobioticum
• Gut of herbivores as symbiots eg neocallimastic
• Pathogen and parasite such as batrachochytrium dendrobatidis in
frogs
 MORPHOLOGY

• Have a simple body structure that may consist of branched or

unbranched hyphae
• Consist of coenocytic (multinucleated) hyphae forming a
continuous multinucleated structure.
• Some hyphae form robot- like structures called rhizoids
• They are uniflagellated cells
 MODE OF NUTRITION

• They are heterotrophic organisms

• Most are parasites such as in frogs (Batrachochytrium
dendrobatidis) Synchytrium endobioticum in potato
tubers
• Saprotrophs; feeds on debris and detritus
• Symbiotic in gut of herbivores
• Feed on pollen grains that fall into water
 REPRODUCTION
• Their life cycles feature an alternation of
isomorphic generation
• Haploid gametothallus and diploid
sporothallus
• The diploid sporophyte can reproduce
asexually and release diploid zoospores
• Sexual reproduction is by gametangial
conjugation and somatogamy
• Sporangium can be asexual or sexual
 FORMS OF REPRODUCTION
• SEXUAL
• 1. Planogamete copulation
• a . conjugation of isogamous gametes (synchtrium endobioticum)
• b –conjugation of anisogamous gametes (blastocladiales)
• c- fertilization of a non motile gamete(monoblepharidale)
• 2. Gametangial copulation
• 3. somatogamy (resting spore)

ASEXUAL
By zoo spores
 GROWTH IN CHYTRIDIN
irreversible increase in size of the chytridin and increase in biomass

increase in individual cell volume since they are uninucleate then

increase in biomass and extension of hyphae or rhizoids

a plot of concentration of biomass of chytridin against time that has been

cultured on agar medium gives a s- shaped growth curve
 FORMS OR GROWTH PATTERNS

• Holocarpic thallus-entirely inside the host cell …..no

differentiation
• Eucarpic thallus –differentiated into organs of reproduction
and rhizoids
• Can be;
• Monocentric .endobiotic or epibiotic
• Polycentric
S-shaped growth curve (sigmoid growth curve) A growth pattern in which
an organism's population density rises slowly originally in a fresh setting, in
a favorable acceleration stage ; then rises quickly approaching an
exponential growth
 ECONOMIC AND ECOLOGICAL IMPORTANCE

• Pathogenic such as batrachochytrium dendrobatidis causes chytriodiomycosis in amphibians

• Educational purpose and research in fungal biology, evolutionary relationships and genetics
• Decomposers of detritus in aquatic and soil ecosystems eg blastocladiales
• Biological control of mosquitoes eg coelomomyces are endoparasites of mosquito larvae
• decomposers of toughest biomolecules such as keratin, chitin and cellulose in herbivores as
symbiots