Question

Open ascocarp is
a. Apothecium
b. Perithecium
c. Ascogonium
d. Cleistothecium

Answer 1

Hint: An ascocarp is the fruiting body belongs to the ascomycete of the phylum fungus, they are tightly arranged and are interwoven to each other, and at the same time they contain millions of asci, each ascocarp typically contains four to eight ascospores, and they in turn classified into many types.

Complete answer:
Ascocarps are classified into many types, based on the place they grow, they are divided into epigeous and hypogeous.
Epigeous grows above the earth, while hypogeous which means they grow underground.
Based on the tissue arrangement they are again classified into the following types-

> Apothecium: This type is a cup-shaped fruit body or it is open saucer shape, this type of fungus is usually sessile and fleshy in nature.
It has mainly three parts which are Hymenium, hypothecium, and Excipulum, here the asci are present in the hymenium layer.

> Cleistothecium: This type of variety is normally a closed body type, it won’t have any opening to outside, this variety is covered by a lot of hyphae and one can termed it as appendages, it consists of asci which is found within the internal cavity.

> Gymnoecium: This type is similar to Cleistothecium, it is also a closed body and not consists of opening the hyphae is present which is loosely intertwined and present as tuft form.

> Perithecium: This type is flask shaped, they have a small opening, from which ascospores are scattered, this variety they are cylindrical shaped where in others they are goblet or pear.
pseudothecium: This type is also very similar to Perithecium but asci are irregularly arranged and have double walled.

Another option given in the above question is ascogonium, which is the female reproductive part of fungi, where after the fertilization, the asci forms.

Hence, The correct answer is option (A).

Note: Ascocarp usually belongs to kingdom fungi and phylum ascomycota and knowing about different varieties and their shapes and type of spore dispersion which helps one to identify the correct answer.