An
ascus (plural
asci; from
Greek ἀσκός
ảskós 'skin bag') is the sexual spore-bearing cell produced in
ascomycete fungi. Asci usually contain eight
ascospores, produced by
meiosis followed, in most species, by a
mitotic cell division. However, asci in some genera or species can occur in numbers of one (e.g.
Monosporascus cannonballus), two, four, or multiples of four. In a few cases, the ascospores can bud off
conidia that may fill the asci (e.g.
Tympanis) with hundreds of conidia, or the ascospores may fragment, e.g. some
Cordyceps, also filling the asci with smaller cells. Ascospores are nonmotile, usually single celled, but not infrequently may be coenocytic (lacking a
septum), and in some cases coenocytic in multiple planes. Mitotic divisions within the developing spores populate each resulting cell in septate ascospores with nuclei. The term
ocular chamber, or
oculus, refers to the epiplasm (the portion of
cytoplasm not used in ascospore formation) that is surrounded by the "bourrelet" (the thickened tissue near the top of the ascus).