Where do I Belong? (Classification)

Domain-Eukarya
Kingdom-Fungi
Phylum-Ascomycota
Class-Sordariomycetes
Order-Hypocreales
Family-Clavicipitaceae
Genus-Claviceps
Species-Claviceps purpurea

Domain-Eukarya
Claviceps purpurea is classified under the domain Eukarya because it has a true nucleus.

Kingdom-Fungi
This organism is placed under the kingdom, Fungi because it is a "fun-guy!" Okay, I know, that was lame but I had to get that joke on here somehow! The real reason this organism is placed in this kingdom is because it exhibits the defining traits of fungi. Some of these traits are an alternation of generations, reproduction by means of spores, a non-motile adult form, cell walls of chitin, and heterotrophic by means of exoenzymes.

Phylum-Ascomycota
Members of this phylum are also known as the sac fungi because they reproduce sexually in a sac-like ascus.  Another trait of the members of Ascomycota is that they reproduce asexually by means of conidia. Check out this other sweet member of the Ascomycota!

Subphylum-Pezizomycotina
Members in this subphylum are all filamentous, sporocarp-producing species. It is very ecologically diverse and does contain plant pathogens, like ergot.

Class-Sordariomycetes
Members of this class produce perithecial asci, which means that the asci line the walls of a small chamber where there is one small hole that allows for spore release. The picture does a great job illustrating what this looks like. They also are mammalian pathogens (which means they cause diseases in mammals).

Order-Hypocreales
Members of this order are recognized by the brightly colored asci they possess.

Family-Clavicipitaceae
All members of this family are obligate parasites. This means that all members cannot live unless they are parasitizing a host. They sound like such a nice family!

Genus-Claviceps- "club-headed"
Members of this genus are very appropriately named due to the fact that the sclerotium of these fungi all shoot out small mushroom-like stalks with a spherical head. These are the fruiting bodies and are called stroma. They look like curly drumsticks to me!

Species-Claviceps purpurea-"purple"
This species, Claviceps purpurea, is placed here because its sclerotium has a distinctive, dark purple color. You can see this in the picture above.
 

PHYLOGENETIC TREES
How is Claviceps purpurea related to other organisms? That's a great question! To help you answer that question, here are a couple phylogenetic trees to help show some relationships!

PHYLOGENETIC TREE #1
*I made this tree to help show the general classification of ergot. We start out at the bottom of the tree and we know that it is not prokaryotic because it has a nucleus, so we continue up the right side of the tree. Fungi do not have cell walls of cellulose, so we keep going. We also know that Claviceps purpurea is heterotrophic and that the cells are composed of chitin. After this point on my tree, all the designations are phyla within the kingdom Fungi, so we can be sure that we are on the right path. We also know that it doesn't have motile spores, doesn't form endomycorrhizae, and that it also doesn't form zygospores. It is a considered a dikaryon, so then we have one final split in the road that we have to decide the way to go. This last step is easy though, because we already know that it forms its sexual spores internally in asci, so it must be a member of the Ascomycota, which indeed it is!

PHYLOGENETIC TREE #2

*This tree is much more specific than the one above, relating species in the genus, Claviceps based on DNA sequencing. These species were compared using the ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 rDNA sequencing. rDNA means that the ribosomal DNA was used. This is an area of the genome which includes the internal transcribed spacer regions (ITS) and generates the large part of the large ribosomal subunit (5.8S). The difference in base pairs were compared among these species and the number of differences is what was used to separate them. One interesting thing that I discovered about this relationship is that there is a significant difference in the host distribution of these organisms. For example, Claviceps purpurea colonizes pooid grasses and C. grohii colonizes sedges and rushes, but their gene sequence shows striking similarities, 97% similar in the case of these two organisms! It's amazing what genetics reveals.

Wow! That was pretty awesome! Ready for more? Then go on to ADAPTATION! If not, go HOME.