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CHARACTERISTICS OF FUNGI: SEXUAL REPRODUCTIVE STRUCTURES

While some fruiting bodies are asexual in nature, others are produced sexually. The fruiting body in this photo (see the black arrow) is called a cleistothecium, and is the sexual fruiting body of a powdery mildew fungus called Microsphaera. The spores (see the blue arrow) produced in sexual fruiting bodies result from the recombination of genes from two fungal "parents". When these spores germinate, they produce "offspring" that are genetically different from both "parents".

Note that there are a couple of interesting characteristics of powdery mildew cleistothecia. Spores in this fruiting body are produced in sacks (see the red arrow). Also, the fruiting bodies have nifty arm-like attachments (see green arrow), called appendages. The number of sacks of spores in the cleistothecium (in this example, more than 1), and the shape of the appendages (in this example, they look like antlers) are characteristics used to classify a powdery mildew fungus into the appropriate genus.