Fungal Diversity

Fungi are important experimental organisms

• Easily cultured, occupy little space, multiply rapidly,
short life cycle
• Studies are more applicable to eukaryotic organisms
than bacterial studies
• Study metabolite pathways, especially secondary
metabolites-- including antibiotics, e.g. penicillin
• Study growth, development, cell biology &
differentiation

Fungi phyla

• early-diverging fungi

• chytrids

• zoopagomycota

• mucoromycota

• basidiomycota

• ascomycota

Early-diverging fungi

• obligate endoparasites

Chytrids

• obligate aquatic fungi

• retain flagella

• can swim between food sources

Zoopagomycota

• loss of rear-facing flagella

• obligate animal or fungal parasites

• reproduce asexually

Mucoromycota

• loss of rear-facing flagella

• obligate plant fungi

• common cause in food spoilage

• grows quickly

• Mycorrhizal fungi

Ascomycota

• loss of rear facing flagella

• Dikaryotic phase

• ascospores in Asci

Basidiomycota

• loss of rear-facing flagella

• dikaryotic phase

• basidiospores on basidia

Saprotrophs

decompose dead plant and animal tissues, hair, and bones

Pathogens

many attack plants and animals, causing high economic loss to agriculture crops and health problems

Mutualists

Fungal mutualistic relationships provide fungi with carbon compounds while benefiting the host organism, such as mycorrhizal associations with plants.

Basidium

club shaped structure that produces spores in some fungi, particularly in the class Basidiomycetes.

White rot

• appears white/yellow and stringy/spongy

• all wood components degraded

Brown rot

• brown and crumbly

• cellulose and hemicellulose degraded but not lignin

Lichens

• mutualistic relationship between a fungus and a photosynthetic organism

• neither can survive on its own

• dual organism