Microascales
Encyclopedia
The Microascales are an order
Order (biology)
In scientific classification used in biology, the order is# a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, family, genus, and species, with order fitting in between class and family...

 of fungi in the Sordariomycetes
Sordariomycetes
The Sordariomycetes are a class of fungi in the subdivision Pezizomycotina , consisting of 15 orders, 64 families, 1119 genera, and 10564 species.Sordariomycetes generally produce their asci in perithecial fruiting bodies....

 class, subclass Hypocreomycetidae
Hypocreomycetidae
Hypocreomycetidae is a subclass of sac fungi....

. This is a relatively small order of mostly saprobic fungi that live in soil, rotting vegetation and dung
Feces
Feces, faeces, or fæces is a waste product from an animal's digestive tract expelled through the anus or cloaca during defecation.-Etymology:...

. Some species are plant pathogens, such as Ceratocystis fimbriata
Ceratocystis fimbriata
Ceratocystis fimbriata is a fungus and a plant pathogen, attacking such plants as the sweet potato and the tapping panels of the Para rubber tree .- External links :* *...

, transmitted by beetles to living trees and causing cacao wilt and many other economically important diseases. Species in the genus Pseudallescheria
Pseudallescheria
Pseudallescheria boydii is a species of fungus classified under Ascomycota. It is associated with some forms of eumycetoma and maduromycosis. The asexual form of this organism is named Scedosporium apiospermum....

(family Microascaceae) are pathogenic to humans, for example, Pseudoallescheria boydii can cause allergic bronchopulmonary disease. The order was circumscribed in 1980.

Description

The Microascales are characterized by a lack of stroma
Stroma (animal tissue)
In animal tissue, stroma refers to the connective, supportive framework of a biological cell, tissue, or organ.The stroma in animal tissue is contrasted with the parenchyma.Examples include:* Stroma of iris...

, black perithecial ascomata with long necks or rarely with cleistothecial ascomata that lack paraphyses. The have roughly spherical and short-lived asci
Ascus
An ascus is the sexual spore-bearing cell produced in ascomycete fungi. On average, asci normally contain eight ascospores, produced by a meiotic cell division followed, in most species, by a mitotic cell division. However, asci in some genera or species can number one , two, four, or multiples...

 that develop singly or in chains. Nonseptate, colorless ascospore
Ascospore
An ascospore is a spore contained in an ascus or that was produced inside an ascus. This kind of spore is specific to fungi classified as ascomycetes ....

s often have ornamenting ridges or wings. The anamorphs of the Microascaceae family produce percurrently proliferating conidiogenous cells (annellides) and sometimes chlamydospore-like or aleurioconidial synanamorphs; these are classified mostly in the genera Scopulariopsis
Scopulariopsis
Scopulariopsis is a genus of anamorphic fungi that are saprobic and pathogenic to animals. The widespread genus contains 22 species....

, Graphium and Scedosporium.
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