Fungalpedia – Note 3280, Ascomycota
Ascomycota Caval.-Sm., Biol. Rev. 73: 247 (1998).
Citation when using this data: Wijayawardene NN et al. 2024 – Fungalpedia.
Index Fungorum, Faceoffungi, MycoBank, GenBank.
Classification: Dikarya, Fungi.
Sexual morph: Reproducing by formation of an ascoma or rarely naked, without an organised ascoma. Ascomata when present apothecial, perithecial, pseudothecial or cleistothecial. Ascomatal cavity when present with a centrum or hamathecium composed of cellular or filamentous, thread-like paraphyses or pseudoparaphyses. Asci unitunicate – operculate, unitunicate-inoperculate, prototunicate, bitunicate. Ascospores with varied shapes, colour, septation, size, with or without surface ornamentation and appendages. Asexual morph: coelomycetous – producing pynidia or acervuli or intermediate forms. hypomycetous – producing sporodochia, synnemata or individual conidiophores; conidia produced by different modes – arthric, blastic (holoblastic and enteroblastic), phialidic, annelidic, basauxic; conidia with different shapes, sizes, dry or wet, with or without surface appendages. Yeasts – budding or fission as the primary means of asexual reproduction, and have sexual morph that are not enclosed in fruiting bodies.
Life modes and habitats: Saprobes, pathogens of plants and animals, or lichen-forming, lichenicolous, fungicolous, endophytes, yeast-like or filamentous
Notes: Whittaker (1959) introduced the term Ascomycota which was invalid. Cavalier-Smith (1998) introduced the legitimate term, and subsequent studies accepted it (e.g. Hibbett et al. 2007). Ascomycota is the largest phylum in the kingdom of Fungi. The higher-level classification of the phylum was first compiled as the ‘Outline of Ascomycota’ by Eriksson and Hawksworth (1986). Subsequent updates and changes were published by Eriksson and Winka (1997), and Lumbsch and Huhndorf (2007, 2010). Important studies of the taxonomy and classification of Ascomycota and its classes since Lumbsch and Huhndorf (2010) are listed in Table 4 (Wijayawardene NN et al. 2024).
Currently, Ascomycota comprises three subphyla and 24 classes (Table 5; Wijayawardene NN et al. 2024).
Other accepted species: Species Fungorum – search Ascomycota.
References
Cavalier-Smith T. 1998 – A revised six-kingdom system of life. Biol Reviews 73:203–266.
Eriksson OE, Hawksworth DL. 1986 – Notes on ascomycete systematics. Nos 1–224. Syst Ascomycetum 5:113–174.
Eriksson OE, Winka W. 1997 – Supraordinal taxa of Ascomycota. Myconet. 1:1–16.
Lumbsch HT, Huhndorf SM. 2007 – Outline of Ascomycota – 2007. Myconet 13:1–58.
Whittaker RH. 1959 – On the broad classification of organisms. Q Rev Biol 34:210–226.
Entry by
Nalin N. Wijayawardene, Center for Yunnan Plateau Biological Resources Protection and Utilization, College of Biological Resource and Food Engineering, Qujing Normal University, Qujing, Yunnan 655011, P.R. China, Tropical Microbiology Research Foundation, 96/N/10, Meemanagoda Road, 10230 Pannipitiya, Sri Lanka, Department of Bioprocess Technology, Faculty of Technology, Rajarata University, Sri Lanka
Published online 25 September 2026