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Kingdom: Fungi Division: Basidiomycota Class: Agaricomycetes Order: Agaricales Family: Coprinaceae Genus: Coprinus Species: Coprinus comatus

Basidiomycota is a mushroom forming phylum of Fungi that includes about 30,000 species. Basisiomycota are found in freshwater, terrestrial, and marine habitats. They can be found as a unicellular or, multicellular and reproduce either sexual or asexual. Moreover, they lack unique and persistent morphological characteristics among groups. Many of them obtain nutrients from dead organic material, and some of them are self digest. The most noticeable and easily familiar Basidiomycota are Coprinus sp. Coprinus sp. are mushrooms, the sexual reproductive structures, where basidium and basidiospores can be found inside the gills. Mushrooms are a sources of food to humans in addition to their vital role in the carbon cycle. However, not all wild mushrooms can be safe for some species of Basidiomycota produce toxins. The most interesting fact about this organism is that their medical use. Some studies identified that Coprinus comatus contains a potent compound, which are useful for treating breast cancer effectively. This antitumor compound inhibits the growth and formation of tumor colony of breast cancer cells, inhibit gastric cancer cells, help regulate blood glucose concentrations, and an ability to increase serum lysozyme activity during immune response.

Source: http://faculty.clintoncc.suny.edu/faculty/michael.gregory/default.htm. [http://www.deanza.edu/faculty/mccauley/6a-labs-fungi-01.htm.%20http://tolweb.org/Basidiomycota/20520 http://www.deanza.edu/faculty/mccauley/6a-labs-fungi-01.htm. http://tolweb.org/Basidiomycota/20520]. http://comenius.susqu.edu/biol/202/fungi/basidiomycota/default.htm

These are good websites to visit for two reasons: A) They passed "CRAAP" test, and use picture of the specific and many other closely related fungi species with different magnification scales. B) They contain many more links that are useful for further research of the same or closely related species, and some helpful information for BI-108.