Fungi

How are fungi different from plants?

Plants:

• Autotrophs

• Specialized tissues for transportation of water and nutrients

• Cell walls with cellulose

Fungi

• Heterotrophs (decomposers)

• Bodies are a mass of filaments woven together with no distinct tissues

• Cell walls with chitin

How do fungi get nutrients

Extracellular digestion: fungi release digestive enzymes breaking down food, and then absorbing nutrients

Food sources: dead stuff, and parasitic fungi feed on living hosts.

Some form mutualistic/symbiotic relationships with plant roots

How do fungi reproduce?

Asexual:

• Fragmentation

• Budding

• Quicker and less energy used, however less genetic diversity

Sexual:

• Spores released from a fruiting body (ex mushroom)

• Spread by wind, water, or other animals

• There is more genetic diversity, but it is slower and uses more energy

Lichen

A mutualistic relationship between a fungus and an algae

Mutualism

A relationship in which both organisms benefit from the relationship

Algae benefits by:

getting water and minerals from fungus

Fungus benefits by:

Getting food made by algae through photosynthesis

Where do you find lichens, why?

On surfaces not typically colonized by other organisms. This relationship allows for food and support.

Cap

Characteristic of phylum:

• basidiomycota; fruiting body of the fungus

Gills

• Holds spores for release by wind, water, or animals

Annulus

• protects the gills during development

Stalk/Stipe

• supports the fruiting body

Volva:

remnant of veil to protect the gills (when the mushroom was younger)

Hyphae

• threadlike filaments form from spores

• Some fungi have septa which are cell walls made from chitin and separates cells

• Other fungi may have nuclei but no separation

Mycellium

underground network of hyphae

Fungi are categorized by mode type of

spores

Chytridiomycota

• uses zoo spores, which has flagella

• most are parasites of algae and animals

• can reproduce asexually by infecting pollen

• or sexually using motile zoospores

Zygomycota

• uses zygospores

• Break down decaying matter, ex: bread mold

• reproduce asexually using sporangia

• or sexually using zygospores

Ascomycota

• Can be pathogenic or beneficial

• Spores: ascospores and conidiophores

• Ex: truffles, largest phylum

• Decomposers, parasites, or mutualists

• Asexually reproduce by specialized hyphae called conidiophores or conidiospores which are dispersed by wind, water, or animals

• Sexually reproduce by: hyphae from 2 different individuals join and form an ascospore

Basidiomycota

• Decomposers or parasites

• Fruiting bodies rise from the ground to release spores

• Asexually reproduce by dispersing conidiospores through water, animals, or wind

• Sexually reproduce by: fruiting bodies rising up (mushrooms, puffballs) on the fills, these confain basidio that fuse together to form basidiospores. They are usually dispersed bt wind.

Deuteromycota

• sexual life cycle not completely understood

• Ex: penicillium

• “Imperfect fungi”

Glomeromycota

• Can not have sex

• Lives in close association with roots of trees and plants

• Mutualistic relationship