On 12 Nov 1997 DJHicks%Faculty%MC at manchester.edu wrote:
>> And while we're at it, are slime molds and oomycetes part of Kingdom Fungi or
> not? (Rhetorical question.)
>I teach a general mycology course at ucsc and, though I include both
groups for the purposes of the course (they aren't usually covered
anywhere else and have "important" organisms in them), I carefully explain
why they are decidedly NOT Fungi. Slime Molds are the most different
(phagotrophic rather than saprotrophic) and, while Oomycetes are "hyphal"
and saprotrophic (or parasitic), their walls are made of cellulose (not
chitin) and they have diploid based life cycle with gametangial meiosis
(something not found in the Fungi), aomong other things. I put them into
Protista (or Protoctista) and explain the unnatural nature of this junk
kingdom while I'm at it.
_________________________________________________________
Patrick Elvander Department of Biology
Lecturer in Biology Sinsheimer Labs
408-459-3674 University of California
1156 High St.
elvander at biology.ucsc.edu Santa Cruz, CA 95064
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