zygomycete

[ zahy-guh-mahy-seet, -mahy-seet, zig-uh- ]

noun

, Mycology.

1. any of a wide variety of common fungi constituting the phylum Zygomycota of the kingdom Fungi (or the class Zygomycetes of the kingdom Plantae), in which sexual reproduction is by the formation of zygospores.

zygomycete

/ ˌzaɪɡəʊˈmaɪsiːt /

noun

1. any filamentous fungus of the phylum Zygomycota (or Zygomycetes ), which reproduces sexually by means of zygospores, including the bread mould

zygomycete

/ zī′gə-mī′sēt′,zĭg′ə- /

1. Any of various fungi belonging to the phylum Zygomycota, characterized by the absence of cross walls (called septa) in all of their hyphae except reproductive hyphae. The absence of septa allows cytoplasm to stream along the hyphae, and most species produce abundant, fast-growing hyphae. Many species of zygomycetes live on decaying plant and animal matter in soil, though some are parasites on plants, insects, and certain soil animals, and a few cause disease in domestic animals and humans. Zygomycetes reproduce both by producing asexual haploid spores in conidia at the end of their hyphae and by producing sexual haploid spores by meiosis after hyphae of different mating types conjugate and their nuclei fuse.

Derived Forms

• ˌzygomyˈcetous, adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of zygomycete¹

< New Latin Zygomycetes (1874), variant name of the class; zygo-, -mycete

Example Sentences

Apophysomyces is a zygomycete, one of the five major groups of fungi.

From Scientific American

In a letter to the editor of the New England Journal of Medicine published three months after the initial article, two military physicians wrote to say that 50% of the combat troops injured in Afghanistan had wounds that had also become infected with zygomycete fungi, and up to one-third of those were co-infected with molds from a different group of fungi as well.

From Scientific American

The T. urticae and Acyrthosiphon pisum sequences form a monophyletic group closely related to the zygomycete sequences.

From Nature

We detected two clusters of carotenoid biosynthesis genes in T. urticae representing homologues of genes from zygomycete fungi and aphids.

From Nature

The T. urticae and Acyrthosiphon pisum sequences form a monophyletic group closely related to the zygomycete sequences.

From Nature