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Dikaryon
 
 
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Dikaryon is from Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
, di meaning 2 and karyon meaning nut
Nut (fruit)

Nut is a general term for the large, dry, oily seed or fruit of some plant. While a wide variety of dried seeds and fruits are called nuts, only a certain number of them are considered by biologists to be true nuts....
, referring to the cell nucleus
Cell nucleus

In cell biology, the nucleus , also sometimes referred to as the "control center", is a membrane-enclosed organelle found in all eukaryote cell ....
.

The dikaryon is a nuclear feature which is unique to some fungi, in which after plasmogamy
Plasmogamy

Plasmogamy is a stage in the sexual reproduction of fungi. In this stage, the cytoplasm of two parent mycelia fuse together without the fusion of nuclei, as occurs in higher terrestrial fungi....
 the two compatible nuclei of two cells
Cell (biology)

The cell is the structural and functional unit of all known Life organisms. It is the smallest unit of an organism that is classified as living, and is often called the building bricks of life....
 pair off and cohabit without karyogamy
Karyogamy

Karyogamy is the fusion of pronuclei of two cell s, as part of syngamy. It is one of the two major modes of reproduction in fungi. It is also the fusion of the pronuclei of two cells, as occurs in fertilization or true bacterial conjugation......
 within the cells of the hyphae, synchronously dividing so that pairs are maintained in the older cells while newer cells or hyphal tips are also binucleate, i.e.






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Dikaryon is from Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
, di meaning 2 and karyon meaning nut
Nut (fruit)

Nut is a general term for the large, dry, oily seed or fruit of some plant. While a wide variety of dried seeds and fruits are called nuts, only a certain number of them are considered by biologists to be true nuts....
, referring to the cell nucleus
Cell nucleus

In cell biology, the nucleus , also sometimes referred to as the "control center", is a membrane-enclosed organelle found in all eukaryote cell ....
.

The dikaryon is a nuclear feature which is unique to some fungi, in which after plasmogamy
Plasmogamy

Plasmogamy is a stage in the sexual reproduction of fungi. In this stage, the cytoplasm of two parent mycelia fuse together without the fusion of nuclei, as occurs in higher terrestrial fungi....
 the two compatible nuclei of two cells
Cell (biology)

The cell is the structural and functional unit of all known Life organisms. It is the smallest unit of an organism that is classified as living, and is often called the building bricks of life....
 pair off and cohabit without karyogamy
Karyogamy

Karyogamy is the fusion of pronuclei of two cell s, as part of syngamy. It is one of the two major modes of reproduction in fungi. It is also the fusion of the pronuclei of two cells, as occurs in fertilization or true bacterial conjugation......
 within the cells of the hyphae, synchronously dividing so that pairs are maintained in the older cells while newer cells or hyphal tips are also binucleate, i.e. dikaryotic; in the Ascomycota
Ascomycota

The Ascomycota are a Phylum of the kingdom Fungi, and subkingdom Dikarya, whose members are commonly known as the Sac Fungi. They are the largest phylum of Fungi, with over 30,000 species....
 this attribute of the nuclei to do such is only found in the Ascogenous hyphae
Ascomycota

The Ascomycota are a Phylum of the kingdom Fungi, and subkingdom Dikarya, whose members are commonly known as the Sac Fungi. They are the largest phylum of Fungi, with over 30,000 species....
 but is the dominant phase in the Basidiomycota
Basidiomycota

Basidiomycota is one of two large phylum that, together with the Ascomycota, comprise the subkingdom Dikarya within the Kingdom Fungi. More specifically the Basidiomycota include mushrooms, puffballs, stinkhorns, bracket fungi, other polypores, jelly fungi, boletes, cantharellus, Geastraceae, smut , common bunt, rust , mirror yeasts, and the...
. The formation of a dikaryon is a pleisiomorph
Cladistics

Cladistics is the hierarchical classification of species based on evolutionary ancestry. Cladistics is distinguished from other taxonomic systems because it focuses on evolution rather than similarities between species, and because it places heavy emphasis on objective, quantitative analysis....
ic character for the subkingdom Dikarya
Dikarya

Dikarya is a subkingdom of Fungi that includes the phyla Ascomycota and Basidiomycota, both of which in general produce dikaryons, may be hyphaous or unicellular, but are always without flagella....
, which covers both the Basidiomycota
Basidiomycota

Basidiomycota is one of two large phylum that, together with the Ascomycota, comprise the subkingdom Dikarya within the Kingdom Fungi. More specifically the Basidiomycota include mushrooms, puffballs, stinkhorns, bracket fungi, other polypores, jelly fungi, boletes, cantharellus, Geastraceae, smut , common bunt, rust , mirror yeasts, and the...
 and Ascomycota
Ascomycota

The Ascomycota are a Phylum of the kingdom Fungi, and subkingdom Dikarya, whose members are commonly known as the Sac Fungi. They are the largest phylum of Fungi, with over 30,000 species....
. The formation of croziers
Crozier (mycology)

A crozier is an anatomical feature of many fungi in the phylum Ascomycota that form at the base of ascus and look like hook-topped shepherd?s staffs or stylized religious crosiers....
 in the Ascomycota and of clamp connection
Clamp connection

A type of connection found within a single hyphal strand of a Basidiomycete fungus. It ensures that two adjacent hyphal cells each have 2 different Cell nucleus from mating with hyphae of another sexual type....
s in the Basidiomycota, facilitate maintenance of the dikaryons. However, some fungi in each of these phyla
Phylum

A phylum "Phylum" is adopted from the Greek phylai, the clan-based voting groups in Greek city-states. is a taxonomic rank below Kingdom and above Class ....
 have evolved other methods for maintaining the dikaryons, and therefore neither croziers nor clamp connections are ubiquitous in either phylum.

See also

  • Heterokaryon
    Heterokaryon

    A heterokaryon is a cell that contains multiple, genetically different cell nucleus. This can occur naturally, such as in the Mycelium of Fungus during sexual reproduction, or artificially as formed by the experimental fusion of two genetically different cells....


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