Leotiomycetes

Leotiomycetes
Uncinula tulasnei
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Fungi
Division:	Ascomycota
Subdivision:	Pezizomycotina
Class:	Leotiomycetes Eriksson & Winka, 1997
Orders
Cyttariales Erysiphales Helotiales Leotiales Rhytismatales Thelebolales Families incertae sedis Thelocarpaceae Vezdaeaceae Genera incertae sedis Amylocarpus Catinella Chaetomella Cyclaneusma Discohainesia Eleutheromyces Geniculospora Hainesia Hyphozyma Leohumicola Meliniomyces Naemacyclus

The Leotiomycetes are a class of ascomycete fungi. Many of them cause serious plant diseases.

Systematics

The class Leotiomycetes contains numerous species with an anamorph placed within the fungi imperfecti (deuteromycota), that have only recently found their place in the phylogenetic system. The older classifications placed Leotiomycetes into the Discomycetes clade (inoperculate Discomycetes). Molecular studies have recently shed some new light to the still obscure systematics. Most scholars consider Leotiomycetes a sister taxon to Sordariomycetes in the phylogenetic tree of Pezizomycotina. Its division into subclasses have received strong support by the molecular data, but the overall monophyly of Leotiomycetes is dubious.

Characteristics

• Most Leotiomycetes grow their asci in apothecia (seldom cleistothecia). The asci are cylindrical, without operculum.
• The spores are hyaline, of various shapes, and are released through a circular apical pore.

External links

• Tree of Life: Leotiomycetes