Biology Review 5: Fungi and Protists and you

Midterm 1

Protists

Eukaryotes that are not animals, plants, or fungi. Can be unicellular or multicellular. Extremely diverse

Eating Protists:

Kelp, a brown Algae (not a plant), forms vast underwater forests that provide the basis of many coastal ecosystems. Used in dashi for miso soup. Pyropia: red algae becomes seaweed

Disease from Protists

Plasmmodium: a single cell protist, responsible for one of the worst diseases in human history: Bubonic

Big three diseases

Malaria (protist): Spread through mosquitoes, responsible for about 500,000 deaths per year. (mostly in sub saharan Africa)

Tuberculosis: bacteria

HIV: Virus

Sickle Cell Anemia

A mutation that turns red blood cells from round to sickly shaped, dosen’t carry oxygen well, causes extreme pain, causes massive damage to almost all major organs without proper healthcare.

The come from Sub Saharan Africa. Sickle cell are resistant to Malaria infection. Some have a mix of sickle and normal cells. Linked to decreased mortality

Amoebas

●Single-celled protists

●Most are harmless

●Naegleria

○Can be harmless

○If it gets up your nose, it will eat your brain until you die

○Always sanitize water (boil usually) before using nettiepots

Fungi

Groups that include mold, mushrooms, and yeasts.

They are spore producing eukaryotic organisms with a chitin based cell wall.

Spore: Microscopic cell that can grow into a new organism without combining with another cell

Chitin is a structural carbohydrate

Can eat stuff like safe mushroom, mold cheese,

Morphology

●Mushroom = fruiting body

○Small fraction of the actual size of the fungi

○What we eat

●Most of the fungi is underneath the soil

○Mycelium

Fairy Rings

●Mycelium grow in a circle/oval

●Causes mushrooms to grow above the soil in a circle

Reproduction of Fungi

●Spores = reproductive unit capable of giving rise to a new individual without sexual fusion

●Complex sexual reproduction

○Alternation of generations

Reproduction Of Fungi

Budding, common in yeast. Asexual.

Decomposer

= An organism that breaks down and consumes dead organic material

Fungi are often the main decomposers in most ecosystems

Along with bacteria

Crucial for all ecosystems

Puts nutrients back into the environment

Alcohol Fermentation

Done in conjunction with yeast and bacteria (SCOBY). Makes ethanol.

●Another chemical reaction used by early civilizations

●Yeasts are found naturally on grains and fruit

●Oldest brewery was dated to be around 13,000 years old

●Wine was important throughout history, especially in Rome

Yeast

●Single-celled fungi

●Used extensively in fermentation and baking

●Take in carbohydrates and produces:

○CO2 -> allows baked goods to rise (proofing)

○Alcohol -> produces the alcohol in wine, beer, mead, etc.

Production of Alcohol Fermentation

●Breads that use yeast (i.e., sourdough focaccia)

●Beer

●Kombucha

●Wine

●Mead (which I make)

●Rum

Sake

Fungi As Disease

●Mycosis = fungal disease

○Thrush

■Common in immunocompromised individuals

○Yeast infections

○Athlete’s foot

Fungi As Medicine

●Produce diverse compounds

●The mold Penicillium

○Penicillin

●Psilocybin mushrooms

○Psilocybin, which in the body produces psychoactive effects

○Promising in the treatment of PTSD