page_title: Mortierella
section_title: Sexual and asexual development
hierarchical_section_title: Mortierella / Sexual and asexual development
caption_attribution_description: English: This is a culture of Mortierella, which is a zygomycete. The view is from the bottom to demonstrate the zonate growth that is characteristic of this genus.
context_page_description: Mortierella species are soil fungi belonging to the order Mortierellales within the subphylum Mortierellomycotina. The widespread genus contains about 85 species.
context_section_description: Some Mortierella species show sexual developmental programs in addition to mitotic reproduction.
  Mortierella forms zygospores that are the developmental consequence of plasmogamy between gametangia belonging to complementary mating types.  The zygospores of Mortierella spp. may be naked (Fig 2 A) or surrounded by sterile hyphae (Fig 2 B) that form a nest-like structure, which may be interpreted as evolutionary early fruiting bodies.
  Some Mortierella species are homothallic (M. epigama, M. parvispora, M. nigrescens,
  M. rostafinskii, M. polycephala, M.renispora), but most are heterothallic (M. elongata, M. marburgensis, M. umbelata, M. capitata, M. indohi). The species Mortierella alpina was found to be homothallic and to form zygospores with a hyphal coat. Most Mortierella species have been found to be heterothallic and to produce naked zygospores with unequal suspensors. 
  Very often sexual structures differ in size between mating types. The smaller suspensor, progametangium or gametangium does not enlarge during sexual development and may disappear soon after plasmogamy. The early development of such heterogametangic zygospores is illustrated in the heterothallic species, M. umbellata. In this species, hyphal coiling occurs at the contact site of sexually compatible mycelia. This is followed by development of progametangia which grow in parallel and close to each other. At the end of this development, one partner, the macroprogametangium will be larger than the other, the microprogametangium.
caption: This is a culture of Mortierella, which is a zygomycete. The view is from the bottom to demonstrate the zonate growth that is characteristic of this genus.
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