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Descriptive accounts and keys are given for 14 species in five genera of obligately anaerobic fungi found in the gut of herbivores. The descriptions are based entirely on thallus morphology...

Are Oomycetes and chytrids fungi? The polyphyletic nature of fungi has been debated for more than a hundred years, but the five-kingdom theory of Whittaker (1969), and more recently the eight-kingdom concept of Cavalier-Smith (1988), is presenting mycologists with a dilemma of how to treat fungi in the classroom and in textbooks, and presents a problem of selecting an appropriate journal for the publication of certain research papers. I will address these issues by first discussing the recent concepts concerning the origin of the various groups traditionally called fungi, and then by presenting my views on the definition and classification of fungi in the light of these revelations. The early work of Sachs (1874), De Bary (1884) and many others (reviewed by Atkinson, 1909) centered on whether fungi were monophyletic or polyphyletic. Ernst Bessey (1942) in his presidential address to this society 50 years ago reviewed many of the evolutionary theories, but at that time there was little new technology to add to the morphological data from the previous century. It is only in the past 30 years that significant new technology has been applied to the study of evolution. Novel studies on cell wall composition, e.g., Bartnicki-Garcia (1970, 1986), cellular metabolism (Vogel, 1965; LeJohn, 1974), and ultrastructural studies employing the transmission electron microscopy have contributed substantially to knowledge on fungal evolution. Electron microscopy has demonstrated a diver

interaction of stabilizing solutes with biomolecules. Cryobiology 27: 219-231. Dawson, R. M. C., D. C. Elliott, W. H. Elliott, and K. M. Jones. 1968. Data for biochemical research. Clarendon Press, Oxford, United Kingdom. 654 p. Grout, B. W. W., and G. J. Morris. 1987. Freezing and cellular organization. Pp. 147-173. In: The effects of low temperatures on biological systems. Eds., B. W. W. Grout and G. J. Morris. Edward Arnold, Cambridge, United Kingdom. Hwang, S. W., W. F. Kwolek, and W. C. Haynes. 1976. Investigation of ultra low temperature for fungal cultures III. Viability and growth rate of mycelial cultures following cryogenic storage. Mycologia 68: 377-387. Laere, A. J. van. 1990. Metabolism and function of trehalose. P. 198. In: Fourth international mycological congress Abstracts. Eds., A. Reisinger and A. Bresinsky. Regensburg, Germany. Lukiewicz, S. 1972. The biological role of melanins. I. New concepts and methodological approaches. Folia Histochem. Cytochem. 10: 93-108. MacLeod, R. A., and P. H. Calcott. 1976. Cold shock and freezing damage to microbes. Pp. 81-109. In: The survival of vegetative microbes. Twenty sixth symposium of the Society for General Microbiology. Eds., T. R. G. Gray and J. R. Postgate. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom. Mazur, P., S. P. Leibo, and E. H. Y. Chu. 1972. A two-factor hypothesis of freezing injury. Evidence from Chinese hamster tissue culture cells. Exp. Cell Res. 71: 345-355. Pertot, E., A. Puc, and M. Kremser. 1977. Lyophilization of nonsporulating strains of the fungus Claviceps. Eur. J. Appl. Microbiol. 4: 289-294. Tommerup, I. C. 1988. Long-term preservation by L-drying and storage of vesicular arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Trans. Brit. Mycol. Soc. 90: 585591. Wiemken, A. 1990. Trehalose in yeast, stress protectant rather than reserve carbohydrate. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek Ned. Tijdschr. Hyg. 58: 209217.

Allochytridium expandens Salkin is a monocentric chytrid. The incipient sporangium enlarges from the germ tube and the sporangium has 1–3 discharge papillae or tubes which are distinctly operculate...

(1979). A New Species of Rozella on a Basidiomycete. Mycologia: Vol. 71, No. 6, pp. 1261-1264.

Four isolates of Hyphochytrium catenoides Karling from soil or sand collected from widely scattered North American localities were compared in morphology and physiology. With the exception of disch...

Catenochytridium hemicysti is a monocentric chytrid with exogenous-endogenous development. A prosporangium develops inside the germ tube and the incipient sporangium develops from the outflow of protoplasm through the zoospore cyst. The zoospore cyst ruptures longitudinally and remains appended to the base of the sporangium. Sporangia are operculate, the single operculum is flexuous and folds up or collapses. Zoospores are released as a globose mass, and almost at once drift apart before swimming away. C. hemicysti utilizes glucose, cellobiose, sucrose, lactose, galactose, starch, cellophane (cellulose), and xylan (hemicellulose). It utilizes organic, ammonium and nitrate nitrogen, and it requires thiamine. It has a zoospore similar to Nowakowskiella, Cladochytrium and Allochytridium. The systematic relationship of Catenochytridium to Chytridium and Diplochytridium is discussed.

SUMMARY Chemically treated cell walls of the chytrids Phlyctochytrium arcticum and Rhizophydium patellarium were analyzed for carbohydrate composition. The presence of chitin was determined by X-ray diffraction and infrared spectroscopy and confirmed by glucosamine analysis with an amino acid analyzer. Chitin constituted slightly less than one half of the wall carbohydrates in P. arcticum and about one quarter in R. patellarium. The other principal carbohydrates detected by the paper chromatography of the acid hydrolysis products were polysaccharides containing glucose and mannose in the ratio of about 2:1 in P. arcticum