Eumycota

Eumycota is a subkingdom or clade of kingdom Fungi that includes chytrids and terrestrial fungi. They are called true mushrooms. This clade was created with the inclusion of opisthosporidia to differentiate from them, since the latter were thought to lack the chitin cell wall, but groups have been found to have chitin in the cell wall or in spores, a feature universal of fungi. Opistosporidia had until recently been classified as protists and chytrids in the past were also part of that kingdom. A recent phylogenetic study has found that Opisthosporidia may in fact be a paraphyletic group from which the true fungi originate.

Eumycetes are characterized by being mostly filamentous or multicellular fungi, as opposed to opistosporidia, which are only unicellular. However, there are also unicellular eumycetes such as yeasts and some chytrids that lost their multicellularity due to a secondary reduction. Eumycota also includes all sexually reproducing fungi. The terrestrial fungi (Amastigomycota) lack a cell flagellum due to its loss during evolution, possibly as a consequence of its adaptation to the terrestrial habitat. However, in chytrids and opistosporidians the ancestral flagellum "opistoconto" that relates fungi to animals.

Systematics

Amanita muscaria and Boletus edulis.

Eumycota includes most divisions of fungi. They can be classified as follows:

• Eumycota
  • Blastocladiomycota
  • Chytridiomycota
  • Amastigomycota
    • Mucoromycota
    • Zoopagomycota
    • Dikarya
      • Ascomycota
      • Basidiomycota
      • Entorrhizomycota

Phylogeny

A possible phylogeny is the following: