Growing on onion epidermal cells. It has been identified using morphology, habitat, and rDNA. It exists as part of the University of Alabama chytrid collection.
This is one of the most easily recognizable chytrids. It grows on human hair with the lipids removed and can be coaxed from richly organic soils. Cemetaries are a good place to find this chytrid. Its defining feature is the presence of forked spines.
Attempts at bringing this chytrid in to culture have failed.
This particular isolate was unique in that it did not produce orange sporangia in culture. It did exist as a pure culture; unfortunately, the culture was lost before DNA could be extracted or the morphology photographed.
Multiple cultures of this "species" were collected with highly variable morphologies. Two were characterized by slow, dense growth while the other two were fast growers. One of the fast growers rarely produced the characteristic orange sporangia; this was previously observed by Willoughby.
Identification is based off morphology and a partial 28s rRNA gene sequence.
There are four pure cultures in the University of Alabama culture collection.
Found on living and decomposing Wolffia thalli.
Not in culture.
Fairly common and omnivorous. (It is not picky; it is equally happy growing on pine pollen, decaying vegetation, or moribund algal cells.)
Attempts to bring this into pure culture were unsucessful.
It is growing on a decaying Lemna sp. thalli.
Unfortunately, attempts to bring this into culture failed.
Chytridiomycota is a division of the Fungi kingdom. The name is derived from the Greek chytridion, meaning "little pot", describing the structure containing unreleased spores. In older classifications, chytrids (except the recently established order Spizellomycetales) were placed in the Class Phycomycetes under the subdivision Myxomycophyta of the Kingdom Fungi. Also, in an older and more restricted sense (not used here), the term "chytrids" referred just to those fungi in the order Chytridiales. The chytrids have also...
