Chytridiales

An order of the *Chytridiomycetes containing unicellular or coe-nocytic fungi that are considered the most primitive members of the Eumycota. Chytrids number about 550 species in some 93 genera and are usually aquatic although some species, such as Synchytrium endobioticum (which causes potato wart disease), are found in damp soil. They produce motile cells, which may behave asexually as zoospores or sexually as gametes, fusing in pairs.