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Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708
Peter M. Letcher
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487
Joyce E. Longcore
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Maine, Orono, Maine 04469
Sharon E. Mozley-Standridge
David Porter
Department of Plant Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30605
Martha J. Powell
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487
Gareth W. Griffith
Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, Wales SY23 3DA, UK
Rytas Vilgalys
Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708
Chytridiomycota (chytrids) is the only phylum of true Fungi that reproduces with motile spores (zoospores). Chytrids currently are classified into five orders based on habitat, zoospore characters and life cycles. In this paper we estimate the phylogeny of the chytrids with DNA sequences from the ribosomal RNA operon (18S+ 5.8S+ 28S subunits). To our surprise the morphologically reduced parasites Olpidium and Rozella comprise two entirely new, and separate, lineages on the fungal tree. Olpidium brassicae groups among the Zygomycota, and Rozella spp. are the earliest branch to diverge in the fungal kingdom. The phylogeny also suggests that Chytridiomycota is not monophyletic and there are four major lineages of chytrids: Rozella spp., Olpidium brassicae, the Blastocladiales and a "core chytrid clade" containing the remaining orders and families and the majority of flagellated fungi. Within the core chytrid group 11 subclades can be identified, each of which correlates well with zoospore ultrastructure or morphology. We provide a synopsis of each clade and its morphological circumscription. The Blastocladiales appears to be the sister taxon of most nonflagellated fungi. Based on molecular phylogenetic and ultrastructural characters this order is elevated to a phylum, the Blastocladiomycota.
Key words: Blastocladiomycota, Chytridiales, holocarpic, kinetosome, phylogeny, zoospore ultrastructure
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