Basidiomycetes

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Noun

Basidiomycetes - large class of higher fungi coextensive with subdivision Basidiomycotaclass Basidiomycetesclass - (biology) a taxonomic group containing one or more ordersBasidiomycota, Basidiomycotina, subdivision Basidiomycota, subdivision Basidiomycotina - comprises fungi bearing the spores on a basidium; includes Gasteromycetes (puffballs) and Tiliomycetes comprising the orders Ustilaginales (smuts) and Uredinales (rusts) and Hymenomycetes (mushrooms, toadstools, agarics and bracket fungi); in some classification systems considered a division of kingdom FungiHomobasidiomycetes, subclass Homobasidiomycetes - category used in some classification systems for various basidiomycetous fungi including e.g. mushrooms and puffballs which are usually placed in the classes Gasteromycetes and HymenomycetesHeterobasidiomycetes, subclass Heterobasidiomycetes - category used in some classification systems for various basidiomycetous fungi including rusts and smutsbasidiomycete, basidiomycetous fungi - any of various fungi of the subdivision Basidiomycotaorder Tremellales, Tremellales - fungi varying from gelatinous to waxy or even horny in texture; most are saprophyticAuriculariales, order Auriculariales - coextensive with the family Auriculariaceae; sometimes included in the order Tremellalesorder Uredinales, Uredinales - rust fungi: parasitic fungi causing rust in plants; sometimes placed in

Basidiomycetes

enUK

Basidiomycetes

[bə‚sid·ē·ō‚mī′sēd‚ēz] (mycology) A class of fungi in the subdivision Eumycetes; important as food and as causal agents of plant diseases.

Basidiomycetes

a class of higher fungi having special reproductive organs, or basidia. The typical mature basidium has four single-cell spores (basidiospores) located in special excrescences, or sterigmata. During germination each basid-iospore puts forth a septate primary (haploid mycelium) or a spawn. Thus, in most basidiomycetes a merging of cells of the same or different (heterothallic) spawns takes place. The diploid mycelium usually develops sexual bodies. (Rust fungi and smut fungi are spore bearing.) Later, meiosis occurs in the basidia (for smut and rust fungi, in the spores); this ends with the formation of usually four nuclei, which migrate to the now-developed basidiospores.

The class Basidiomycetes includes more than 15,000 species. Many of them are edible (for example, birch mushroom, cepe, and peppery lactarius), some are poisonous (fly agaric and death cup), some cause wood rot, and some destroy many agricultural crops. The classification of basidiomycetes is based upon the structural peculiarities of its sexual organs and spore bearing. Basidiomycetes are usually divided into two subclasses: Holobasidiomycetes, which has a single-cell basidium called the holobasidium, and Phragmobasidiomycetes, which has either a four-celled basidium, the so-called phragmobasidium, or a single-cell spheroid, pear-shaped, or elongated dichotomously bifurcate basidium. The subclass Holobasidiomycetes is divided into the following orders: (1) Exobasidiales, without sexual organs and basidia developing on the spawn under the epidermis of the feeding plant (parasites); (2) Aphyl-lophorales; (3) Agaricales; and (4) Gasteromycetales. The subclass Phragmobasidiomycetes is divided into the following orders: (1) Ustilaginales, (2) Uredinales, (3) Au-riculariales, (4) Tremellales, (5) Dacryomycetales, and (6) Tulasnellales. The sexual organs of the latter four orders are mostly of a jelly-like consistency. The phragmobasidia which grow on them are divided into four cells either crosswise, as in the Auriculariales, or lengthwise, as in the Tremellales; or they are single-cell basidia, dichotomously bifurcate, as in the Dacryomycetales, or spherical or pear-shaped, as in the Tulasnellales.

REFERENCES

Kursanov, L. I. Mikologiia, 2nd ed. Moscow, 1940.
Bondartsev, A. S. Trutovye griby Evropeiskoi chasti SSSR i Kav-kaza. Moscow-Leningrad, 1953.

T. L. NIKOLAEVA

Basidiomycetes

Ba·sid·i·o·my·ce·tes

(ba-sid'ē-ō-mī-sēt'ez), One of the four major classes of fungi, characterized by a spore-bearing organ (basidium), usually a single clavate cell, which bears basidiospores after karyogamy and meiosis. The class comprises the smuts, rusts, mushrooms, and puffballs. Excluding mycotoxins, there is only one human pathogen, the basidiomycetous stage of Cryptococcus neoformans. [Mod. L. basidium, dim. of G. basis, base, + mykēs (mykēt), fungus]

basidiomycetes

A class of true fungi—which includes mushrooms, puffballs, earth stars, stinkhorns, bracket fungi, rust, smuts, jelly fungi, bird’s-nest fungi—which produce spores at the tips of swollen hyphae that are likened to clubs.

Basidiomycetes

(bă-sĭd″ē-ō-mī-sē′tēz) In one system of taxonomy, a class of the true fungi that contains mushrooms, bracket fungi, the plant parasites rusts and smuts, and the human parasite Cryptococcus. This class is equivalent to the phylum Basidiomycotina in another system of taxonomy. Mushroom toxins may be lethal to humans if ingested, and spores of these fungi may cause allergic asthma.

Basidiomycetes

Related to Basidiomycetes: Deuteromycetes, Zygomycetes

noun

Synonyms for Basidiomycetes

noun large class of higher fungi coextensive with subdivision Basidiomycota

Synonyms

class Basidiomycetes

Related Words

class
Basidiomycota
Basidiomycotina
subdivision Basidiomycota
subdivision Basidiomycotina
Homobasidiomycetes
subclass Homobasidiomycetes
Heterobasidiomycetes
subclass Heterobasidiomycetes
basidiomycete
basidiomycetous fungi
order Tremellales
Tremellales
Auriculariales
order Auriculariales
order Uredinales
Uredinales