Plantae
Fungi
Protista
Monera
Animalia
Kingdom Fungi
About 100,000 species
Uses:
• medicine
• food
Ecological value:
• major decomposers
• symbiotic relationships (N2 fixers)
Problems:
• some strains are deadly
• athletes foot
• destroy library books
• destroy crops
Some fungi are pathogens
• About 30% of the 100,000 known species of
fungi are parasites, mostly on or in plants.
– American elms:
Dutch Elm Disease
Was once one of America's
most dominant trees
–American chestnut:
chestnut blight
Some fungi are pathogens
• Other fungi, such as rusts and ergots, infect
grain crops, causing tremendous economic
losses each year.
Some fungi are pathogens
• Curse of the Mummy
Some fungi are persistant
Athletes Foot
Fungi as Decomposers
Kingdom Fungi
Eukaryotic, absorptive
Mostly multicellular (except few,
e.g. yeast)
Heterotrophic (decomposers &
parasitic)
Mycelium (body of hyphae)
Kingdom Fungi
• Firm cell walls (generally of
“chitin”)
• “Spores” as reproductive bodies
• Unique chromosomes and nuclei
• Includes molds, yeasts, rusts,
and mushrooms
• hyphae - the vegetative bodies of most
fungi, constructed of tiny filaments
• mycelium -an interwoven mat of hyphae
Human hair
Fungal hypha
Septate hypha:
• multicellular
• walls divided by septa
Ceonocytic hypha:
• continuous cytoplasm
mass
• multinucleate
• no septa
Haustoria:
• Modified hyphae found in parasitic fungi
• Function: absorb nutrients from host
• Some fungi even have hyphae adapted for
preying on animals.
Kingdom Fungi
Division Chytridiomycota
Division Ascomycota
Division Glomeromycota
Division Basidiomycota
Division Zygomycota
Division Deuteromycota
Fig. 31-11
Hyphae
Chytrids
(1,000
species)
Fungus
-like
protist
Zygomycetes
(1,000
species)
Fungal hypha
Glomeromycete
s (160 species)
Ascomycetes
(65,000 species)
?
Deuteromycota
Basidiomycetes
(30,000 species)
25 µm
• The five fungal
phyla can be
distinguished by
their
reproductive
features.
Division Chytridiomycota
• mainly aquatic.
• Some are saprobes, while others parasitize
protists, plants, and animals.
• chitinous cell wall
• flagellated zoospores
• the most primitive fungi
Division Zygomycota
“Zygote fungi”
(bread molds)
Zygote = “mated” hyphal strands
Live in soil, water
Some are parasites
600 species
Mated hyphal strands
• The zygosporangia are resistant to freezing
and drying.
• When conditions improve, the
zygosporangia release haploid spores that
colonize new substrates.
– Pilobolus aiming its spores.
• The zygomycete Rhizopus can reproduce either
asexually or sexually.
PHYLUM GLOMEROMYCOTA
• Previously With Zygomycota
• Small Monophyletic Clade
• Endomycorrhizae – Arbuscular
Mycorrhizae
• Produce branching Arbuscules
Fig. 31-15
2.5 µm
Plant-Fungal Relationships
Mycorrhizae (“fungus roots”)
90% of tree species have this
association
Very important to absorption of
water and nutrients
Soil surface
Plant roots
Mycorrhizae
Increases s.a. for absorption
Division Ascomycota
“Sac fungi”
(truffles, yeast)
Beer > 6,000 years
Wine > 8,000 years
Lichens
Decomposers, pathogens
“yeast” describes a form
of fungi (i.e., non-hyphal)
60,000 species
Division Ascomycota
Scarlet cup
truffles
Morchella
Division Ascomycota
Roquefort cheese
Close up of cheese showing
blue-green mycelium of
Penicillium roqueforti.
Yeast
LICHENS
Crusrose
Foliose
Fruticose
Lichen
Lichen Anatomy
• Ascomycetes are characterized by an extensive
heterokaryotic stage during the formation of
ascocarps.
Division Basidiomycota
“Club fungi”
(mushrooms)
Club-shaped reproductive structure
Food
Plant diseases
25,000 species
Fairy Ring
• The life cycle of a club fungus usually includes a
long-lived dikaryotic mycelium.
PHYLUM DEUTEROMYCOTA
No Longer Exist!!
•
•
•
•
•
•
22,000 species.
No known sexual stage.
Saprophytic, parasitic and predatory.
Many produce conidia.
Most classified as Ascomycota.
Fusarium wilt of tomato, potato and
cotton.
• Athletes foot, ring worm
Division Deuteromycota
“Imperfect fungi”
(penicillin)
Unrelated group
Asexual
No info on sexual cycle
25,000 species
Penicillin
Woops…
now Ascomycota
Candida albicans
“yeast infection”
Botrytis: “Noble Rot”