Home • Piptocephalis cylindrospora RSA 2659 single-cell v3.0
Piptocephalis cylindrospora is a mycoparasitic member of the subphylum Zoopagomycotina, a phylum of the former Zygomycota. Zoopagomycotina are known as diverse parasites of nematodes, rotifers, amoebae, fungi and other hosts. P. cylindrospora is obligately parasitic on Mucorales and infects the host through means of specialized haustoria. Haustoria are branched, walled cells that penetrate the host cell wall and are used for energy extraction. Strain RSA2659 is cultivated on the Mucoraceous mold Cokeromycesrecurvatus. Aerially dispersed spores of the parasite are produced in merosporiangia, sporangia with few spores, produced in a linear manner. Piptocephalis is the first sequenced member of the subphylum. A goal of this project is to understand the deep phylogeny of the early terrestrial fungi considered zygomycetes that produce whose sexual state is limited to a single cell, the zygosporangium. Because of its obligate parasitism, single cell genomics methods were used for genome sequencing.

Piptocephalis is characterized by the production of relatively large, brownish sporophores that exhibit three-dimensional dichotomous branching. Each terminal branch of P. cylindrospora ends in a deciduous head cell bearing the merosporangia.
Branched sporophores of Piptocephalis cylindrospora producing terminal heads of merosporangia. (photo credit: Timothy James, University of Michigan)

Piptocephalis cylindrospora is a mycoparasitic member of the subphylum Zoopagomycotina, a phylum whose members are known as diverse parasites of nematodes, rotifers, amoebae, fungi. and other hosts. P. cylindrospora is obligately parasitic on Mucorales and infects the host through means of specialized haustoria. Haustoria are branched, walled cells that penetrate the host cell wall and are used for energy extraction. Strain RSA2659 is cultivated on the Mucoraceous mold Cokeromyces recurvatus. Piptocephalis is characterized by the production of relatively large, brownish sporophores that exhibit three-dimensional dichotomous branching. Each terminal branch of P. cylindrospora ends in a deciduous head cell bearing the merosporangia. Aerially dispersed spores of the parasite are produced in merosporiangia, sporangia with few spores, produced in a linear manner.

Piptocephalis is the first sequenced member of the subphylum, and represents one of the many diverse taxa that are of high interes for the 1000 Fungal Genomes project. It has been selected as part of a Fungal single-cell genome sequencing pilot project. 

Genome Reference(s)