Glomerales is an order of symbiotic fungi within the phylum Glomeromycota.

Glomerales
Temporal range: 460–0 Ma
Glomus mosseae
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Fungi
Division: Glomeromycota
Class: Glomeromycetes
Order: Glomerales
Morton & Benny, 1990[1]
Families and genera

Glomeraceae

Claroideoglomeraceae

Synonyms

Glomales

Biology

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These fungi are all biotrophic mutualists. Most employ the arbuscular mycorrhizal method of nutrient exchange with plants. They produce large (.1-.5mm) spores (azygospores and chlamydospores) with thousands of nuclei.[2]

Phylogeny

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All members of their phylum were once thought to be related to the Endogonaceae, but have been found through molecular sequencing data, to be a closer relation to the Dikarya.[3] Their fossil record extends back to the Ordovician period (460 million years ago).[2]

Meiosis

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Glomerales fungi were thought to have reproduced clonally for several hundred million years and are therefore an ancient asexual lineage.[4] However, homologs of 51 meiotic genes, including seven genes specific for meiosis, were found to be conserved in the genomes of four Glomus species.[4] Thus it now appears that these supposedly ancient asexual fungi may be capable of meiosis and perhaps also of a cryptic sexual or parasexual cycle.[4]

Orthography

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The family name Glomeraceae upon which this order level name is based, was incorrectly spelled 'Glomaceae', hence the order name was incorrectly spelled 'Glomales'. Both are correctable errors, to Glomeraceae and Glomerales, as governed by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature. The incorrect spellings are commonplace in the literature.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ J.B. Morton (1990). "Revised classification of the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (Zycomycetes): a new order, Glomales, two new families, Acaulosporaceae and Gigasporaceae, with an emendation of Glomaceae". Mycotaxon. 37: 473.
  2. ^ a b C.J. Alexopolous, C.W. Mims & M. Blackwell (2004). Introductory Mycology (4th ed.). Hoboken NJ: John Wiley and Sons. ISBN 0-471-52229-5.
  3. ^ A. Schüßler; et al. (December 2001). "A new fungal phylum, the Glomeromycota: phylogeny and evolution". Mycol. Res. 105 (12): 1413–1421. doi:10.1017/S0953756201005196.
  4. ^ a b c Sébastien Halary, Shehre-Banoo Malik, Levannia Lildhar, Claudio H. Slamovits, Mohamed Hijri, Nicolas Corradi, Conserved Meiotic Machinery in Glomus spp., a Putatively Ancient Asexual Fungal Lineage, Genome Biology and Evolution, Volume 3, 2011, Pages 950–958, https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evr089