Fungi With a Sterile Mycelium or Conidia: Eumycota Subdivision Deuteromycotina

Abstract

Not all Deuteromycotina are found in a sporing condition; some species of great economic importance occur regularly as sterile mycelia on natural substrata and remain sterile when isolated in culture, or may be induced to sporulate only by hit-and-miss variation of cultural conditions. The factors inducing sporulation differ from one species to another and are not generally understood, so it is not surprising that attempts to induce sporulation are empirical, not always successful, and are very often not pursued. Yet some sterile mycelial states, which may or may not include sclerotial states, are important enough to require naming and classification and are sometimes distinctive enough to be described and recognized again with reasonable confidence.