study 4/25/25

1. What is a fungus, Answer: A eukaryotic organism that absorbs nutrients from organic material.
2. What material is found in the cell wall of fungi that isn’t found in most plants, Answer: Chitin.
3. Why are fungi more resistant to changes in osmotic pressure, Answer: Chitin strengthens their cell walls against pressure changes.
4. Are fungi phototrophs or heterotrophs, Answer: Heterotrophs.
5. Be able to describe the general anatomy of a fungus, Answer: Composed of hyphae forming a mycelium, sometimes with a fruiting body for reproduction.
6. What is a hypha, Answer: A long filament of cells in fungi.
7. What is a mycelium, Answer: A mass of hyphae that makes up the body of a fungus.
8. What is a fruiting body, Answer: The reproductive structure of a fungus that produces spores.
9. What are the kinds of reproductive structures associated with fungi, Answer: Sporangia, conidiophores, fruiting bodies.
10. What type of cell is created during sexual reproduction of a fungus, Answer: A zygote.
11. What does it mean when a fungus has coenocytic hyphae, Answer: Hyphae without septa, containing many nuclei in one continuous cytoplasm.
12. What is monokaryotic, Answer: Having one nucleus per cell.
13. What is dikaryotic, Answer: Having two nuclei per cell.
14. Know the general characteristics that define the phyla of kingdom Fungi, Answer: Reproductive structures, spore types, hyphae structure, and ecological roles.
15. Which phylum has flagellated cells at some point in its life cycle, Answer: Chytridiomycota.
16. Which phylum is generally part of mycorrhizal associations, Answer: Glomeromycota.
17. What is a mycorrhizal association, Answer: A symbiotic relationship between fungi and plant roots.
18. Know the reproductive cells and structures associated with each phylum, Answer: Chytrids (zoospores), Zygomycota (zygosporangia), Glomeromycota (no sexual spores), Ascomycota (ascospores), Basidiomycota (basidiospores).
19. What is a lichen, Answer: A symbiotic association between a fungus and a photosynthetic partner.
20. What is the general anatomy of a lichen, Answer: Layers of fungal hyphae surrounding a layer of photosynthetic cells.
21. What phyla of fungus is generally associated with lichens, Answer: Ascomycota.
22. Are lichens symbionts, Why or why not, Answer: Yes, because the fungus and photosynthetic partner benefit each other.
23. Know the three general types of lichen, Answer: Crustose, foliose, fruticose.
24. How do lichens reproduce, Answer: By fragmentation or producing soredia.
25. What are soredia, Answer: Small clusters of fungal hyphae and algal cells used for reproduction.
26. Why are lichens important ecological indicators, Answer: They are sensitive to air pollution.
27. What are the ecological roles of fungi, Answer: Decomposers, symbionts, pathogens.
28. What is the importance of mycorrhizae, Answer: They enhance plant nutrient uptake.
29. What are the commercial/economic uses of fungi, Answer: Food, medicine (antibiotics), and fermentation.
30. Are there any problems or dangers associated with fungi, Answer: Yes, some are pathogens or produce toxins.

1. What is a charophyte, Answer: A group of green algae closely related to land plants.
2. Be able to list and explain the adaptations plants made in order to survive a terrestrial environment, Answer: Waxy cuticle (prevents water loss), stomata (gas exchange), vascular tissue (transport), seeds (protection and dispersal), alternation of generations (separate gamete and spore stages).
3. What is alternation of generations, Answer: Life cycle alternating between haploid gametophyte and diploid sporophyte stages.
4. What is a gametophyte, What is its chromosome number, Answer: A haploid (n) structure that produces gametes by mitosis.
5. What is a sporophyte, What is its chromosome number, Answer: A diploid (2n) structure that produces spores by meiosis.
6. Know the reproductive structures of plants, Answer: Archegonia (female gametangia), antheridia (male gametangia), sporangia (spore-producing structures).
7. What type of reproductive cells do plants produce by meiosis, Answer: Spores.
8. What type of reproductive cells do plants produce by mitosis, Answer: Gametes.
9. What is a nonvascular plant, Answer: A plant lacking specialized tissues for water and nutrient transport.
10. Know the phyla of nonvascular plants, Answer: Bryophyta (mosses), Hepatophyta (liverworts), Anthocerophyta (hornworts).
11. Be familiar with the life cycle of Bryophyta, Answer: Dominant gametophyte, dependent sporophyte, requires water for fertilization.
12. What generation is dominant in nonvascular plants, Answer: Gametophyte.
13. What are major differences between the three phyla of nonvascular plants, Answer: Liverworts have flattened thalli; mosses have leafy structures; hornworts have horn-like sporophytes.
14. Why does having flagellated sperm mean bryophytes are not completely adapted to a terrestrial environment, Answer: Fertilization requires water.
15. What is a protonema, Answer: Early, thread-like growth of a moss gametophyte.
16. What is a thallus, Answer: A simple, flattened body without true stems or leaves.
17. Why are nonvascular plants limited in size, Answer: Lack of vascular tissue limits transport and support.
18. Which phyla of nonvascular plants can reproduce asexually, Answer: Hepatophyta (liverworts).
19. What are gemmae, Answer: Tiny reproductive structures that produce new liverworts.
20. What is photoperiodism, Answer: A plant's response to the length of day or night.
21. Know the general names and functions of vascular plant tissue, Answer: Xylem (conducts water), phloem (conducts food/sugar).
22. What are microphyll leaves, Answer: Small leaves with a single vein.
23. What are megaphyll leaves, Answer: Larger leaves with a branched vein system.
24. Why do most plants possess megaphyll leaves, Answer: Greater surface area for photosynthesis.
25. Know the phyla of the ferns and club mosses, Answer: Lycophyta (club mosses), Monilophyta (ferns, horsetails, whisk ferns).
26. What generation is dominant in seedless vascular plants, Answer: Sporophyte.
27. Know the general lifecycle of a seedless vascular plant, Answer: Dominant sporophyte, independent gametophyte, spores for reproduction.
28. Do ferns spend the majority of their lifecycle diploid or haploid, Answer: Diploid.
29. Be able to compare and contrast the lifecycle of bryophytes and seedless vascular plants, Answer: Bryophytes: dominant gametophyte; seedless vascular: dominant sporophyte.
30. What is a prothallus, Answer: Small, heart-shaped fern gametophyte.
31. What are the similarities of a fern gametophyte and a liverwort gametophyte, What are the differences, Answer: Both haploid and photosynthetic; fern gametophyte is free-living and heart-shaped; liverwort is thalloid.
32. What is a sorus, Answer: Cluster of sporangia on the underside of fern fronds.
33. What are the horsetails, Answer: Seedless vascular plants with jointed stems and silica deposits.
34. Do horsetails have leaves, Where does photosynthesis occur, Answer: Small leaves; photosynthesis occurs mainly in stems.
35. What is a strobilus, Answer: A cone-like structure that bears spores.
36. What is a club moss, Answer: A small vascular plant with microphyll leaves and strobili.
37. Why were club mosses and horsetails important to the planet millions of years ago, Answer: They formed extensive forests that became coal deposits.
38. What does heterosporous mean, Answer: Producing two types of spores (microspores and megaspores).
39. What is a microspore, What does it form, Answer: A small spore forming a male gametophyte.
40. What is a megaspore, What does it form, Answer: A large spore forming a female gametophyte.
41. Why do biologists think that heterospory was the first step towards the development of the seed, Answer: It led to distinct male and female gametophytes, a key for seed development.
42. What is an apical meristem, Answer: Region of active cell division at tips of roots and shoots.
43. What is polyploidy, Answer: Having multiple sets of chromosomes.