11 C Fungus like protists
► Fungus
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like protists
Heterotrophic, need moist environments
Cell walls of cellulose (not chitin)
Motile
Example: water molds & slime molds
1. Water molds- Phylum Oomycota
► Aquatic members live on dead or decaying
organic matter (like dead fish)
► Land members parasitize plants  blights (crop
loss)
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Ex. Irish Potato famine (1845-1847) Ireland’s population
8mil to 4 mil  go to USA
Asexual reproduction:
sporangia produce
zoospores that swim away
► Sexual reproduction: sperm
and ova with fertilization
tubes
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2. Slime molds – (DECOMPOSERS!)
► 2 phased life cycle feeding phase – mold looks like amoeba, eats
bacteria & organic matter (slimy white/yellow/red mass)
 Reproductive phase - fruiting bodies produce
spores
2. Slime molds- cont’d
► A. Phylum Acrasiomycota – cellular slime molds
 Amoeba like, unicellular, crawl in moist areas
decomposing
 When food scarce – gather together into colony
(called pseudoplasmodium) looks like slimy slug
forms fruiting bodies
2. Slime molds- cont’d
► B. Phylum Myxomycota
– cellular plasmodial slime molds
 Plasmodium is multinucleate – cells all come together
and cell walls dissolve, creeps like a blob & phagocytizes
organic matter
 When food is scarse  fruiting body  form sspores 
haploid cells emerge  fuse  do mitosis without
cytokinesis  new plasmodium