What are the main groups of fungi? What is a characteristic for each group?

There are four main groups of fungi: Zygomycota, Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, and Deuteromycota.

Zygomycota - The most common example of this group is a bread mold. Zygomycota are mainly found on decaying plant or animal matter. They reproduce asexually through their pores, and are usually characterized by their fast growing hyphae.

Ascomycota - Notable members of this group include the yeasts used in the making of beer, bread, and wine. Morels and truffles are also among the 30,000 different that comprise Ascomycota. They are filamentous during development, and their hyphae are septate.

Basidiomycota - These are the decomposers that are so important to the functioning of many ecosystems, such as mushrooms and toadstools. They can be distinguished by their basidiospheres , borne outside their club shaped basidium. Aquatic basidiomycota are very rare.

Deuteromycota - Formerly called fungi imperfecti , he most distinguishing feature of deuteromycota is the fact that it is unknown how they reproduce, because of their lack of sexual stages. These fungi are used to make antibiotics.