Please answer the following question: Information: - Tympanis is a genus of fungi in the family Helotiaceae. The genus contains 29 species. - Ascomycota is a division or phylum of the kingdom Fungi that, together with the Basidiomycota, form the subkingdom Dikarya. Its members are commonly known as the sac fungi or ascomycetes. They are the largest phylum of Fungi, with over 64,000 species. The defining feature of this fungal group is the "ascus" (from Greek: ("askos"), meaning "sac" or "wineskin"), a microscopic sexual structure in which nonmotile spores, called ascospores, are formed. However, some species of the Ascomycota are asexual, meaning that they do not have a sexual cycle and thus do not form asci or ascospores. Previously placed in the Deuteromycota along with asexual species from other fungal taxa, asexual (or anamorphic) ascomycetes are now identified and classified based on morphological or physiological similarities to ascus-bearing taxa, and by phylogenetic analyses of DNA sequences. - Basidiomycota is one of two large divisions that, together with the Ascomycota, constitute the subkingdom Dikarya (often referred to as the "higher fungi") within the kingdom Fungi. - In biology, a species (abbreviated sp., with the plural form species abbreviated spp.) is the basic unit of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which two individuals can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. While this definition is often adequate, looked at more closely it is often problematic. For example, in a species complex, the boundaries between closely related species become unclear or disappear altogether. Other ways of defining species include similarity of DNA, morphology, or ecological niche. The presence of locally adaptive traits may further subdivide species into infraspecific taxa such as subspecies. - Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a molecule that carries the genetic instructions used in the growth, development, functioning and reproduction of all known living organisms and many viruses. DNA and RNA are nucleic acids; alongside proteins, lipids and complex carbohydrates (polysaccharides), they are one of the four major types of macromolecules that are essential for all known forms of life. Most DNA molecules consist of two biopolymer strands coiled around each other to form a double helix. - Cordyceps is a genus of ascomycete fungi (sac fungi) that includes about 400 species. All "Cordyceps" species are endoparasitoids, parasitic mainly on insects and other arthropods (they are thus entomopathogenic fungi); a few are parasitic on other fungi. Until recently, the best known species of the genus was "Cordyceps sinensis", first recorded as "yartsa gunbu" in Nyamnyi Dorje's 15th century Tibetan text "An ocean of Aphrodisiacal Qualities". In 2007, nuclear DNA sampling revealed this species to be unrelated to most of the rest of the members of the genus; as a result it was renamed "Ophiocordyceps sinensis" and placed in a new family, the Ophiocordycipitaceae. - An ascospore is a spore contained in an ascus or that was produced inside an ascus . This kind of spore is specific to fungi classified as ascomycetes ( Ascomycota ) . Typically , a single ascus will contain eight ascospores . The eight spores are produced by meiosis followed by a mitotic division . Two meiotic divisions turn the original diploid zygote nucleus into four haploid ones . That is , the single original diploid cell from which the whole process begins contains two complete sets of chromosomes . In preparation for meiosis , all the DNA of both sets is duplicated , to make a total of four sets . The nucleus that contains the four sets divides twice , separating into four new nuclei -- each of which has one complete set of chromosomes . Following this process , each of the four new nuclei duplicates its DNA and undergoes a division by mitosis . As a result , the ascus will contain four pairs of spores . The Fungi Saccharomyces produces ascospores when grown on V - 8 medium , acetate ascospore agar , or Gorodkowa medium . These ascospores are globose and located in asci . Each ascus contains one to four ascospores . The asci do not rupture at maturity . Ascospores are stained with Kinyoun stain and ascospore stain . When stained with Gram stain , ascospores are gram - negative while vegetative cells are gram - positive . The fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe is a single - celled haploid organism that reproduces asexually by mitosis and fission . However , exposure to the DNA damaging agent hydrogen peroxide induces pair-wise mating of haploid cells of opposite mating type to form transient diploid cells that then undergo meiosis to form asci , each with four ascospores . The production of viable ascospores depends on successful recombinational repair during meiosis . When this repair is defective a quality control mechanism prevents germination of damaged ascospores . These findings suggest that mating followed by meiosis is an adaptation for repairing DNA damage in the parental haploid cells in... - Monosporascus cannonballus is a species of fungus in the Sordariales. It is a plant pathogen. - Dikarya is a subkingdom of Fungi that includes the phyla Ascomycota and Basidiomycota, both of which in general produce dikaryons, may be filamentous or unicellular, but are always without flagella. The Dikarya are most of the so-called "higher fungi", but also include many anamorphic species that would have been classified as molds in historical literature. Phylogenetically the two phyla regularly group together. In a 1998 publication, Thomas Cavalier-Smith referred to this group as the Neomycota. - An ascus (plural asci; from Greek "skos" 'skin bag') is the sexual spore-bearing cell produced in ascomycete fungi. Asci usually contain eight ascospores, produced by meiosis followed, in most species, by a mitotic cell division. However, asci in some genera or species can occur in numbers of one (e.g. "Monosporascus cannonballus"), two, four, or multiples of four. In a few cases, the ascospores can bud off conidia that may fill the asci (e.g. "Tympanis") with hundreds of conidia, or the ascospores may fragment, e.g. some "Cordyceps", also filling the asci with smaller cells. Ascospores are nonmotile, usually single celled, but not infrequently may be coenocytic (lacking a septum), and in some cases coenocytic in multiple planes. Mitotic divisions within the developing spores populate each resulting cell in septate ascospores with nuclei. The term ocular chamber, or oculus, refers to the epiplasm (the portion of cytoplasm not used in ascospore formation) that is surrounded by the "bourrelet" (the thickened tissue near the top of the ascus). - Meiosis is a specialized type of cell division that reduces the chromosome number by half, creating four haploid cells, each genetically distinct from the parent cell that gave rise to them. This process occurs in all sexually reproducing single-celled and multicellular eukaryotes, including animals, plants, and fungi. Errors in meiosis resulting in aneuploidy are the leading known cause of miscarriage and the most frequent genetic cause of developmental disabilities. After reading the paragraphs above, we are interested in knowing the entity with which 'ascospore' exhibits the relationship of 'taxon rank'. Find the answer from the choices below. Choices: - division - form - genus - group - kingdom - phylum - species - subkingdom
Answer:
genus