Phenotypes of the Cross Grey x Tan
        Parental Ditype Asci:  4 grey spores and 4 tan spores
        Nonparental Ditype Asci:  4 wild type spores and 4 aborted spores
        Tetratype Asci:  2 wild type spores, 2 grey spores, 2 tan spores, and 2 aborted spores

Questions:

• Are grey and tan alleles of the same locus, or are they alleles on separate loci?
•     Separate loci because:  the g t+ x g+t (grey x tan) cross yielded NPD and tetratype asci and the map distances of g and t from the centromeres were different.

• How far is(are) the spore color locus (loci) from the centromere?
•    Map distance is calculated by ((MII/total)100)/2 = distance between markers in map units (aka centimorgans).  Because a saturation is reached at 33.3 map units because of multiple cross over events between markers, it is only possible to assign a map distance of 33.3 or more map units to any pair of markers are calculated to have a distance of 33.3.
•     The class count for the distance between the g locus and its centromere was ((416/658)100)/2 = 31.6 map units.  This is a little low.  The literature puts the map distance at 33.3, and mapping with intervening markers between the centromere and g place the distance at about 60 map units.  This result shows the importance of having a large sample size.
•     The clas count for the distance between the t locus and its centromere was ((341/593)100)/2 = 28.7 map units.  This is very close to the value published in the literature.

• Why are the NPD and tetratypes of the grey x tan not 4 wild type and 4 tan and 2 wild type, 2 grey, and 4 tan, respectively?
•     Remember the genotypes of the spores with the following genotypes are:  wild type - g+ t+, grey - g t+, tan - g+ t, and aborted - g t.  Therefore, for instance, the grey x wild type cross is g t+ x g+ t+.  You need to remember, then, that even when you are looking at a single locus, all the other loci are still present in the organism.  With this preface then:  When you watch spore maturation occurring in a wild type ascus, you see that spores are first clear, then tan, then grey, then black.  When you look at the mutants controlled by the g+ t and the g t+ genotypes, you might conclude that there is blockage at steps along a single simple pathway to mature spore color such that when t is present in the genotype, all further spore color maturation would be blocked.  However, the presence of aborted spores suggests that spore maturation events controlled by the g and t loci are more involved than just the development of spore coloration.

• Think about this one, if grey and tan are separate loci, what would you count to determine if they are linked on the same chromosome?  (Hint:  think of the different types of asci you saw in the grey x tan cross.)
•     I did not give you quite the correct answer to this the other day.  What you would do is compare the number of PD to the number of NPD.  If the number of each is equal, then the two loci are assorting independently.

Mycological Society of America:  This is the major professional society of mycologists in North America.  It has
lots of links to other sites: http://www.erin.utoronto.ca/~w3msa/

Tom Volk's Fungi:  This is one of the really great pages in mycology.  Link to it and fly.  It has lots of
interesting links as well: http://www.wisc.edu/botany/fungi/volkmyco.html

The WWW Virtual Library:  Mycology:   This page, maintained by Kathie Hodge at Cornell, is probably the
best starting points for someone looking for available pages in mycology:  http://mycology.cornell.edu/

Office hours: I do not presently have an office you can visit, so I will be in SCIE 308 one hour before class, or by appointment.

Phone: 575-6343 (Office) or 575-7393 (Lab)

Email:fspiegel@uark.edu

Website:http://comp.uark.edu/~fspiegel/

1. a set of three oral presentations
2. a major term paper
3. a laboratory portfolio

Oral Presentations: You will give three oral presentations during the course.

• I will assign the general topics to be discussed (see below), and you must clear the specific aspect you wish to cover with me.
• Each presentation will be 20 min. long with 10 min. for questions.
• You must hand out an abstract of 150-250 words and a bibliography to the whole class before each talk.
• You must illustrate your talks appropriately with overheads, slides, and/or computer graphics.
• Because this will be the first time many of you make presentations, each talk will have progressively more weight. The first will be worth 15% of your presentation grade, the second 35%, and the final 50%.

• The paper must have a text between 12 and 20 pages long, double spaced, and with a font no smaller than 10pt or larger than 12pt.
• All margins must be 1 in (2.5cm).
• Figures and tables are to be included after the References section.
• The References and figures and tables are not considered part of the text.
• Papers must be formatted in the style required by Mycologia.
• Graduate students and undergraduates using the paper to meet the Fulbright College Writing Requirement must have at least 25 cited references.
• Undergraduates who are not meeting the Writing Requirement must have at least 15 cited references.

If you wish to do a lab or field research project for your paper, you may do so after discussing it with me.

Lab Portfolio: It is important that each of you have hands on experience with identifying, growing, and observing living fungi. Therefore, you will keep a laboratory portfolio of required exercises. It will include the following:

• Laboratory notebook including: required drawings from the checklist of fungi (see below); illustrations of specimens collected (see below); results of laboratory experiments; records of isolations (see below); and observations of fungal development.
• Cultures of fungi you have been assigned to isolate and culture (see below).
• Specimens of higher fungi you have collected and identified (see below).
• Photographs and photomicrographs of one of the fungi you culture and one of the fungi you collect as a specimen (see below).
• Bibliographic references to each of the genera you collect and illustrate.
• A list of interesting mycological Web sites.
• Addresses (email or snail mail) and/or Web sites of experts you contacted to aid in identifying fungi.

• Three ring binder with Botany Paper. This is for your laboratory notebook.
• 3H Pencil (not #2!) or colored pencils or drawing pen. This is for your lab drawings.
• A good eraser (if you are not using ink).
• One or more rolls of ASA100 color slide film. This will be for photographs and photomicrographs of fungi. I recommend Fuji film. Cameras will be available for you to use.
• A good sharp pocket knife. This is useful in the field.
• A hand lens. Ditto.
• You may also want to keep the mold growing in your shower, on you refrigerator, etc. These are good supplies of specimens. J

• We will often be going out into the field, but, especially when we are looking for fleshy basidiomycetes, we will have to be opportunistic. Therefore, always come dressed to go out into the woods and fields. Wear clothes you don’t mind treating roughly and sturdy shoes that can get dirty. You must wear closed toed shoes and long pants or a lab coat to all labs.
• There are lots of interesting fungi out there. When you see something cool, bring it to class so we all can see it. (Never take anything from private property without permission.) If it is a fleshy fungus, put it into a paper (never plastic) bag and keep it in a cool, dry place. If you find something on Friday to bring to class Tuesday, keep the bag in the refrigerator. It is always better to let a fleshy fungus dry out than to let it rot. (It is never a great idea to bring in a specimen that is already starting to decompose, so check to see that it is not wormy or full of insects.)
• There are a lot of substrates that are full of interesting fungi. Feel free to bring them in as well. If a substrate is already covered with sporulating fungi, bring it to class in a covered container. If you are bringing herbivore dung to class (and you will be), bring it in a sealed plastic bag. Never leave any specimens in a closed car where they can become overheated.

Gene expression in a selected group of fungi (from species on up)

Fungal community structure

Population biology of a fungus or fungi

The phylogenetic structure of a group of fungi

The role of some fungus or fungi in the dynamics of some ecosystem

Developmental genetics of some fungus or fungi

Development of some stage of some fungus or fungi

Interaction between a pathogenic fungus and its host(s)

Interaction between a mutualistic fungus and its partner

Source(s) of pathogenic fungi that appear on an introduced host

Mating genetics in fungi

Evolution of the mycelium

Chytridiomycetes, monophyletic or paraphyletic?

Zygomycetes, monophyletic or paraphyletic?

What is the primitive morphology of the "higher" fungi?

What is a fungal individual, population, or species?

I’ll keep adding more ideas as I trip over them.

• Unless specified otherwise, all cultures must be pure, or axenic, cultures. That is the cultured organism must be the only organism in the culture.
• Each cultured fungus must be sporulating.
• Each cultured organism must be identified to genus, except where otherwise noted.
• Each culture must be accompanied by illustrations: either drawings, photographs, or digital images. The images must be of your isolate. Keep the illustrations in your notebook once I have signed off on them.
• You may not turn in a culture that you or someone else established outside this course.

• 4 single spore isolates of Schizophyllum commune. This will be a group exercise.
• 4 anamorphs of ascomycetes. You may substitue one or more of these with teleomorphs of ascomycetes, in which case, one teleomorph is worth 2 anamorphs. One of these fungi must be identified to species.
• 3 cultures of zygomycetes. Two of these cultures may be of the two mating types of one species. One of these fungi must produce sporangiola. One of these fungi must be identified to species. Some of these fungi are parasitic on other zygomycetes. In this case a two membered culture is permissible.
• 2 cultures of aquatic fungi, either chytridiomycetes or oomycetes or one of each. With these organisms, a unifungal culture is acceptable. One of these fungi must be identified to species. (It may be necessary to grow some of these fungi on seeds to get them to sporulate. Directions for this will be provided.)
• One mycetozoan identified to species. This will be in a culture with at least one food organism.

• 4 collections are required.
• One collection must be identified to species. The others must be identified at least to genus.
• Each collection must consist of one or more dried fruiting bodies and, in the case of gilled mushrooms, a spore print on a slide. The collection must be turned in in a labeled herbarium packet (instructions later).
• Each collection must be accompanied by illustrations of the habit of the fruiting body, the internal structure of the fruiting body, and the sporulating structures. Keep the illustrations in your notebook once I have signed off on them.

• Each of the categories below must be met if one of the blanks is filled with an "X". I will also list the fungi that we have seen that will fit that category. You are free to (and encouraged to) have more than one entry in a category.
• Each fungus you illustrate must be identified to genus unless otherwise indicated.
• A blank filled with an "O" will indicate that some but not all of the class may have seen an example of that category. You are not required to have an example of such a category.
• A blank that is not filled in means an example of that category was not found, and I was guilty of wishful thinking. You are, obviously, not responsible for that category.
• The fungi in your culture collections and macrofungi collections may be used to meet a category.
• One fungus may fulfil more than one category.
• For each drawing of a fungus you must show the details that are listed with each category.

___x__Spore germination in a hyphal fungus

___x__Hyphal growth

_____Growth of a yeast

___o__Zoospore encystment and germination

Fungi with the following "life styles"

___x__A saprophyte: Alternaria, Cladosporium, Fusarium, etc.

___x__A plant pathogen Phyllactinia, Microsphaera

___o__A pathogen of an invertebrate (let’s try to avoid pathogens of vertebrates)

_____A pathogen of fungi

_____A pathogen of algae

___o__A mutualistic fungus:  a lichen

Fungi

___x__The development of a fruiting body from ascogonium to mature ascospores:  Sordaria fimicola

___x__Ascus development from zygote to mature spores:  Sordaria fimicola, Ascobolus immersus

_____A crustose lichen

___x__A foliose lichen Parmelia

___x__A fruticose lichen Teloschistes chrysophthalamus

                    Anamorphs

For each of the following, illuatrate the habit of the conidium producing structure, the conidiophore (if present), the conidiogenous cell, and the conidium. Note before you panic – in many cases a single fungus will meet a number of these categories.

___o__A fungus with pycnidia

___o__A fungus with acervulus

___o__A fungus with thallic conidiogenesis:  Epicoccum sp., conidia of powdery mildews

___o__A fungus with phialidic development:  Fusarium sp.

___x__A fungus with tretic or poroconidial development:  Alternaria sp., Curvularia sp., Drechslera sp.

___x__A fungus with acropetal chains of conidia:  Alternaria sp., Cladosporium sp.

___x__A fungus with basipetal chains of conidia:  Penicillium, Aspergillus

___x__A fungus with ameroconidia: Cladosporuim sp.

___o__A fungus with didymoconidia

___x__A fungus with phragmoconidia: Fusarium sp., Curvularia sp., Drechselra sp.

___x__A fungus with dicytoconidia: Alteranria sp., Epicoccum sp.

_____A fungus with scolecoconidia

___o__A fungus with helicoconidia

___o__A fungus with stauroconidia

                    Teleomorphs

For each of the following illustrate the habit, the sterile components of the fruiting body, the ascogenous hyphae (if possible), the asci, and the ascospores

___x__A perithecial fungus: Sordaria fimicola, Chaetomium sp.

___x__An apothecial fungus: Ascobolus immersus, Saccobolus sp., lichens

___x__A cleistothecial fungus Phyllactinia, Microsphaera, Eurotium

___x__A fungus with bitunicate asci, Leptosphaeria

_____A laboul (Catch a lot of German cockroaches)

_____A sporulating yeast

_____A hyphal fungus with naked asci

___x__The development of a fruiting body from primordium to mature basidiospores Schizophyllum

___x__Hyphae with clamp connections Schizophyllum, fruiting bodies of some mushrooms, and jelly fungi

___x__Basidium development from zygote Schizophyllum, mushrooms, jelly fungi

___x__Development of a holobasidium Schizophyllum, mushrooms

_____Development of a transversely septate basidium

___x__Development of a longitudinally septate basidium Exidia, Tremella

___x__Development of a tuning fork basidium Dacrymyces

___x__Basidiospore germination by repetition Exidia, Tremella
 

For each of the following an illustration should include a habit drawing of the sporulating structure, a detail of the basidium (if present), a detail of other spore types if present.

                    Rusts and friends (We may not find all these stages)

___x__A rust with urediniospores Puccinia on crabgrass, Miyagia (I think) on Aster

_____A rust with aeciospores

___x__A rust with teliospores Miyagia

_____A rust with basidiospores

_____A rust with spermagonia

_____Septobasidium (maybe)

                    Smuts (If we have the time)

_____A smut with teliospores

_____Exobasidium (maybe)

                    Hymenomycetes (if it ever rains)

___x__A tremellalean jelly fungus or auricularioid fungus with longitudinally (cruciately) septate basidia Exidia, Tremella

___x__An auricularioid fungus with transversely septate basidia (Look in your hot and sour soup) Auricularia (habit)

___x__A dacrymycetalean fungus Dacrymyces

___x__A gilled mushroom Several

___o__A bolete

___o__A puffball Young Calvatia

___o__A stinkhorn (we’ll do habit of this outside)

___o__A bird’s nest fungus

___o__A polypore:  Ganoderma sp.

___o__A coral fungus

___o__A hydnoid fungus

___x__Schizophyllum commune

___o__The life cycle of Phycomyces blakesleeanus

The following asexual reproductive structures (and zygospores, if possible)

___x__Pilobolus sp.

___x__Mucor sp.

___o__Choanephora sp.

___o__Cunninghamella sp.

See this space if we find examples of other zygomycetes

___x__A eucarpic chytrid:  You have seen numerous eucarpic, monocentric chytrids on pollen

___x__A monocentric chytrid

_____A polycentric chytrid

___x__The life cycle of Allomyces arbuscula: You saw the sporophyte stage with zoosporangia and resting sporangia.  Some of you saw gametophytes with male and female gametangia as well.

Mycological Property that are not Fungi

Stramenopiles

_____Olpidiopsis sp.

___x__A saprolegnialean fungus:  Achlya and/or Saprolegnia

___x__Pythium sp.

_____ A downy mildew fungus

_____Albugo ipomeae-panduranae

_____A hyphochytrid

Plasmodiophorids (maybe)

_____Ligniera sp. or Sorosphaera veronicae
 
 

Eumycetozoans

Myxomycetes

___x__A myxomycete fruiting body showing habit, stalk (if present), peridium (if present), capillitium (if present), and spores

___o__Myxomycete amoeboflagellates as amoebae and flagellates

___x__Myxomycete plasmodium

Dictyostelid Cellular Slime Molds

___x__A dictyostelid fruiting body showing stalk, stalk cells, sorus, and spores

___x__Amoebae

___x__Aggregation, slug formation, and fruiting body development

_____Macrocysts (if present)

Protostelids

___o__Fruiting bodies from two species of protostelids identified to species

Heterolobosea (Maybe)

_____Fruiting bodies of the cellular slime mold Acrasis rosea

_____Amoebae