Abdul Archive

Zygomycetes Mucorales

In most members of the Mucorales, numerous spores are contained in globose sporangia borne at the tips of aerial sporangiophores. Within the sporangium the spores may surround a central core or columella, although in some species the columella is greatly …

Taxonomy of fungi

Taxonomy is the science of classification, i.e. the ‘assigning of objects to defined categories’. Classification has three main functions: it provides a framework of recognizable features by which an organism under examination can be identified; it is an attempt to …

Cleavage of ascospores

In many ascomycetes, studies of the fine structure of asci during cleavage of the ascospores have shown that a system of double membranes continuous with the endoplasmic reticulum extends from the envelope of the diploid fusion nucleus. The double membrane …

Ascus development in Ascomycota

In yeasts and related fungi, the ascus arises directly from a single cell, but in most other ascomycetes it develops from a specialized hypha, the ascogenous hypha, which in turn develops from an ascogonium.  Ascogenous hypha The ascogenous hypha of …

Sex Determination

Introduction: Sexual reproduction is the formation of offspring that are genetically distinct from their parents; most often, two parents contribute genes to their offspring. Among most eukaryotes, sexual reproduction consists of two processes that lead to an alternation of haploid …

Testcross

A useful tool for analyzing genetic crosses is the testcross, in which one individual of unknown genotype is crossed with another individual with a homozygous recessive genotype for the trait in question. A testcross tests, or reveals, the genotype of the …

Monohybrid Crosses

Mendel started with 34 varieties of peas and spent 2 years selecting those varieties that he would use in his experiments. He verified that each variety was genetically pure (homozygous for each of the traits that he chose to study) …

The Cell Cycle and Interphase

The cell cycle is the life story of a cell, the stages through which it passes from one division to the next. The cell cycle consists of interphase (a period of cell growth) and M phase (the period of nuclear and …

Genetic Terminology

The term gene was a word that Mendel never knew. It was not coined until 1909, when the Danish geneticist Wilhelm Johannsen first used it. The definition of a gene varies with the context of its use, and so its …