ABSTRACT
Fungal organisms may produce several types of spores, at the same or different time periods, and either mitotically or, after nuclear fusion, meiotically. Fungi that have more than one independent form or spore stage in their life cycle are called pleomorphic. The whole fungus in all its forms (morphs) and phases is called the holomorph. The term teleomorph is used to designate the sexual or “perfect” state of a fungus and is characterized by the sexual spores resulting from meiosis (meiospores). In contrast, the term anamorph denotes the asexual or “imperfect” stage or stages exhibiting only mitotic divisions. An anamorph may produce asexual spores by means of mitosis (mitospores) [1]. Mitosporic fungi (formerly classified as Deuteromycetes or Fungi Imperfecti) are those that are missing a teleomorphic form and exist only in an anamorphic stage(s). As deduced from the shape of the anamorph(s) and, more significantly, from DNA sequence analysis, many of the mitosporic fungi are closely related to the ascomycetous fungi. These have a sexual cycle and form their meiotic spores (ascospores) endogenously within asci, which are either naked cells or are present within fruiting bodies. Much attention has thus been given to the anamorphs of Ascomycetidae that often occur well separated in either time or space from their teleomorphs [2-4; this volume, Chapter 3 by Fischer].
