Botany 359, Fall 1996

Name ______________________ (Parts I, II, and III must total 48 points; you have your choice of which questions to answer except where indicated; part IV and V totals 52 points)

 

I. USING CHART FORM ONLY (listing the features to be compared or contrasted on the left hand side) Compare (give all the similarities) and contrast (give all the differences) for the following pairs of features or taxa.

 

A. An ascocarp with a basidiocarp. (6 points)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

B. the repeating stage of the rust Cronartium ribicola with the stage that produces the spore which infects wheat in Puccinia graminis. (6points)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

C. The 8-spored basidium with monokaryotic spores in Sphaerobolus (Sphaerobolaceae, Nidulariales, Gasteromycetes) with the 4-spored basidium with dikaryotic spores in Clitopilus (Entolomataceae, Agaricales, Hymenomycetes) (6 points)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

D. Endophytic fungi in plants with Endomycorrhizal fungi in plants. (6 points)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

II. In short terse sentences, answer the following questions (24 points, 3 points each)

 

A. Explain the differences between the Boletaceae and the Polyporaceae

 

 

B. What is the function of the pileus in a basidiocarp?

 

 

C. On what bases do mycologists believe the Clavariaceae is not phylogenetically related to the other families in the Aphyllophorales?

 

 

 

D. What is the adaptive advantage of a fungus that possesses a basidiocarp that produces latex?

 

 

E. Do you think Laricifomes officinalis should be placed on the endangered species list? Why? Why not?

 

 

 

F. Discuss the reproductive biology of jelly fungi which produce gelatinous basidiocarps in cold and often freezing weather.

 

 

 

G. Mucronella is a genus in the Hydnaceae whose sporocarp is composed of a single spine. Multiclavula is a genus in the Clavariaceae and its basidiocarp is composed of a single spine. Why is this correct?

 

 

H. Discuss the reproductive biology of hypogeous basidiocarps.

 

 

III. Short answer questions (24 points, 6 points each):

 

A. Most lignicolous species in the Aphyllophorales with a resupinate or effuso-reflexed basidiocarp possess a trimitic trama, warty basidiospores, odd-shaped, thick-walled cystidia, and produce spores over a 6-8 month period. Discuss the adaptive advantages of these features

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

B. Cyphella is a xylobiont classified in the Cyphellaceae. It possesses a basidiocarp that is composed of a single tube similar to just one tube of the basidiocarp in the Boletaceae; the base of the tube is attached to the substrate. The basidiocarp has no pileus, no stipe, and heterotropically attached basidiospores.

In what order would you classify this fungus?; defend your answer.

Is its hymenium superior or inferior? defend your answer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

C. How can you account for the following facts, all of which are true

1. "fungi causing stem rust on wheat, barley, rye, and oats are morphologically indistinguishable from each other."

2. "no one strain of wheat rust can infect all 14,000 different kinds of cultivated wheat."

3. "there are 200 distinct fungal races of wheat rust."

4. "species of rust are specific to wheat,barley,rye, and oats."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

D Pluteus cervinus, a species in the Pluteaceae, is a lignicolous fungus with a basidiocarp. The basidiocarp has a pileus, a centrally attached stipe, and extremely tall gills (the distance from the cap to the gill edge is about 1" whereas it is about 1/4 to 1/2" in other mushrooms). The gills are quite crowded together so that the space between adjacent gills is about 0.1 mm. The basidiocarp is described by the human, Alexander H. Smith, as having no odor nor any taste and as having brown pigments. The spores are heterotropically attached; the stipe is positively phototrophic and negatively geotrophic; the gills are positively phototrophic. From primordium to mature basidiocarp to the disappearance of the basidiocarp covers about 3 days.

Discuss its reproductive biology which includes spore discharge and spore dispersal mechanisms.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IV. Collybia racemosa, a mushroom classified in the Tricholomataceae, possesses the following features:

 

a. a mating system that is heterothallic, bifactorial, and simple allelic; in addition fi, fb, and mod genes operate as well as those genes responsible for any part (function included) of the basidiocarp.

b. a primary mycelium that is monokaryotic.

c. the secondary mycelium and all parts of thetertiary mycelium are dikaryotic

d. a basidiocarp with asexual spores produced at the end of a synnema; the synnema originates from the stipe surface.

e. the basidium produces 4, heterotropically attached basidiospores, each of which is monokaryotic

 

Diagram the life cycle and label all parts (42 points).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

V. Compare and contrast the characteristics which define Ascomycetes with those of Basidiomycetes (10 points)