Fungi
When you think of fungus, what do you think of?
•
Mold on your fruits?
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Mushrooms on your Pizza?
Importance of Kingdom Fungi
1. many pathogenic species

ex. Ringworm

ex. athlete’s foot

ex. potato blight
2. decomposers

i.e. saprophytes

recycle dead organisms
(fertilize soil)

break down toxic waste
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Importance of Kingdom Fungi
3. some species produce antibiotics
ex. Penicillium
edible mushrooms
4. food source
* mushrooms (vitamin D)
* make blue cheeses
5. yeast: used commercially to make:

bread

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beer & wine
chicken of the woods
beefsteak
Similarities Between Plants & Fungi
Plants
Fungi
 eukaryotic cells
 numerous organelles
 multicellular (*except yeast)
 have cell walls
 anchored in soil
 stationary
 reproduce asexually or sexually
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Differences Between Plants & Fungi
Plants
Fungi
one nucleus per cell
many nuclei per cell
autotrophs (make own food)
Heterotrophs (must eat to
get nutrition)
have roots
no roots (filaments instead!)
cellulose in cell walls
chitin in cell walls
(like insects)
reproduce by seeds
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no seeds, they have spores
Generalized Structure


made of thin filaments called hyphae
nuclei
Under a microscope, hyphae look like a
tangled mass of threads or tiny plant roots
cell wall
A
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Generalized Structure
Mycelium:
formed by many intertwining threads of cells
called hyphae
- Very much like a “colony”
- Usually forms on or below surface of soil
mycelium showing many interlocking hyphae
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C
Anatomy of Fungus
The dividers between fungal cells often have openings that allow proteins,
fluids and even nuclei to flow from one cell to another.
Some fungal species have no cell dividers:
just a long, continuous cell dotted by multiple nuclei spread throughout.
Fruiting
Body
(Mushroom)
Mycelium
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Hyphae
Oregon Honey Mushroom (Armillaria ostoyae)
•
Nicknamed the
“Humungous Fungus”
• Started as a single
microscopic spore
• Has grown for 2,400 years
and is now 8.9 km across
• The only above-ground
signs of the humongous
fungus are patches of dead
trees and the mushrooms
that form at the base of
infected trees.
•
The Humungous Fungus is the Largest living
organism on Planet Earth
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Life Cycle – Asexual Reproduction
spores:
 unicellular reproductive
cells (ie. made of one cell)
 formed in specialized spore
cases called sporangia (um)
Sporangiophore
 when mature, sporangia
break open releasing 1000’s
of spores to be carried by
the wind
 each spore forms a new mycelium (identical to parent)
 ex. Rhizopus stoloniferous- bread mould
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Spore Dispersal
•
•
•
Fungus generally don’t grow tall enough, or in high enough areas to
simply release their spores into the wind
Spores must “burst” from the fruiting body
This increases the chances of their spores being picked up by drafts or
landing on an animal
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Life Cycle – Sexual Reproduction
 2 Haploid (one set of chromosomes) hyphae cells fuse together
 grow into a mushroom (fruiting body)
 sexually produced spores form on the inside of the gills
 as spores mature, mushroom opens up
& releases its spores to the wind
(up to 2 billion/mushroom)
 each spore grows into a genetically
different mycelium
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Life Cycle – Sexual Reproduction
cap
Label the
following
diagram of a
mushroom.
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gills
stalk
Yeast

different from other fungi because:
 unicellular
 reproduce asexually by budding
1. nucleus
doubles
2. one nucleus moves into the bud
3. bud grows & falls off to become a
new yeast cell identical to parent
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Scary Fungus
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Coryceps: A parasitic fungus that “takes over”
the body of its host, eventually killing it
Mucormycosis is a fungal infection of the sinuses, brain, or lungs
that occurs primarily in people with immune disorders.
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Read the following
Page 140 # 1, 3, 5, 6, 8
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