Kingdom

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Kingdom
Fungi
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Introduction

• Ecosystems would be in trouble without fungi to
  decompose dead organisms, fallen leaves, feces,
  and other organic materials.
• Most plants depend on fungi that help their roots
  absorb minerals and water from the soil.
• Human have cultivated fungi for centuries for
  food, to produce antibiotics and other drugs, to
  make bread rise, and to ferment beer and wine.

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Introduction

• Fungi are eukaryotes and most are multicellular.
  Molecular evidence from comparisons of several
  proteins and ribosomal RNA indicates that fungi
  are more closely related to animals than to
  plants
• oldest undisputed fossil fungi date back 460
  million years, about the time plants began to
  colonize land.
• Fungi are heterotrophs that acquire their
  nutrients by absorption.
• Exoenzymes, powerful hydrolytic enzymes secreted
  by the fungus, digest food outside its body to
  simpler compounds that the fungus can absorb and
  use

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Differences From Plants

• 1. heterotrophic- no photosynthesis they break
  down organic material and absorb it. 2. Fungi
  made of filaments not many separate cells like
  plants. 3. Have cell walls made of chitin, a
  tough polysaccharide found in the hard outer
  coating of insects. 4. Nuclear mitosis chromosome
  separate in the nucleus at opposite ends.
• Roles ecological roles of fungi are decomposers
  (saprobes), parasites, or mutualistic symbionts

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Structures

• 1. Hyphae- the slender filaments that make up the
  body of fungi, Chitin, except for yeasts. Each
  hyphae is a long string of cells divided by a
  partial cell wall, some species do not have cell
  walls and they share cytoplasm. 2. mycelium- a
  tangled mass of hyphae formed as fungi grow
• mycelia can be huge, but they usually escape
  notice because they are subterranean.
• One giant individual of Armillaria ostoyae, honey
  mushroom, in Oregon is 3.4 miles in diameter and
  covers 2,200 acres of forest,
• It is at least 2,400 years old, and weighs
  hundreds of tons Largest Living Thing!!!!

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Pic. Of Largest Living Organism
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Some Divided Some Not
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Haustoria of Parasitic Fungus
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Reproduction

• Fungi reproduce by releasing spores that are
  produced either sexually or asexually.
• The output of spores from one reproductive
  structure is enormous, with the number reaching
  into the trillions.
• Dispersed widely by wind or water, spores
  germinate to produce mycelia if they land in a
  moist place where there is food.

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Diversity

• 100,000 species of fungi are known and
  mycologists estimate that there are actually
  about 1.5 million speciesworldwide.

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Chytridiomycota

• mainly aquatic. Some are saprobes, while others
  parasitize protists, plants, and animals.
• chytrids are the most primitive fungi, presence
  of flagellated zoospores suggest protistan
  ancestor.
• few unicellular chytrids, most form coenocytic
  hyphae.

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Zygomycota

• 600 zygomycete, or zygote fungi, are terrestrial,
  living in soil or on decaying plant and animal
  material.
• One zygomycete group form mycorrhizae,
  mutualistic associations with the roots of
  plants.
• Zygomycete hyphae are coenocytic, with septa
  found only in reproductive structures.
• Bread Molds that reproduce sexually or asexually

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Ascomycota Sac Fungi

• sexual reproducers yeasts are the example in this
  group. 350 species of yeasts
• 60,000 species of ascomycetes, or sac fungi
• live in a variety of marine, freshwater, and
  terrestrial habitats.
• Some are devastating plant pathogens.
• Many are important saprobes, particularly of
  plant material.
• half the ascomycete species live with algae in
  mutualistic associations called lichens

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Pics of Ascomycetes
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Basidiomycota Club Fungi

• Mushrooms, puffballs, shelf fungi, and rusts.
• Approximately 25,000
• important decomposers of wood and other plant
  materials.

• Two groups of basidiomycetes, the rusts and
  smuts, include particularly destructive plant
  parasites.

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Cont.

• Mainly reproduce sexually.
• billion sexually-produced basidiospores may be
  produced by a single, store-bought mushroom
• A ring of mushrooms may appear overnight.
• At the center of the ring are areas where the
  mycelium has already consumed all the available
  nutrients.
• As the mycelium radiates out, it decomposes the
  organic matter in the soil and mushrooms form
  just behind this advancing edge.

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Ring of Shrooms
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Tell the differences by how they reproduce
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Molds, yeasts, lichens, and Mycorrhizae

• evolved morphological and ecological adaptations
  for specialized ways of life
• mold is a rapidly growing, asexually reproducing
  fungus.
• grow as saprobes or parasites on a variety of
  substrates.
• Early in life, a mold, a term that applies
  properly only to the asexual stage, produces
  asexual spores.
• Later, the same fungus may reproduce sexually,
  producing zygosporangia, ascocarps, or
  basidiocarps

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Mold Can be Good
Penicillin is an important antibiotic derived
from the mold Penicillium notatum, pictured here
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Yeasts

• Yeasts are unicellular fungi that inhabit liquid
  or moist habitats, including plant sap and animal
  tissues.
• reproduce asexually
• Use in bread making
• And alcohol fermen-
• Tation for many years

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Cont.

• Rhodotorula, grows on shower curtains and other
  moist surfaces in our homes.
• Another yeast, Candida, is a normal inhabitant of
  moist human epithelial surfaces, such as the
  vaginal lining
• lichens are actually a symbiotic association of
  millions of photosynthetic microorganisms held in
  a mesh of fungal hyphae

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Lichens

• The fungal component is commonly an ascomycete,
  but several basidiomycete lichens are known.
• The photosynthetic partners are usually
  unicellular or filamentous green algae or
  cyanobacteria.
• The merger of fungus and algae is so complete
  that they are actually given genus and species
  names, as though they were single organisms.
• Over 25,000 species have been described.

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Lichen Up Close
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Pioneers

• Lichens are important pioneers on newly cleared
  rock and soil surfaces, such as burned forests
  and volcanic flows.
• They act as soil trappers
• Lichens are particularly sensitive to air
  pollution and their deaths can serve as an early
  warning of deteriorating air quality. They are an
  indicator species.

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Mycorrhizae

• Mycorrhizae are mutualistic associations of plant
  roots and fungi.
• Almost all vascular plants have mycorrhizae and
  the Basidiomycota, Ascomycota, and Zygomycota all
  have members that form mycorrhizae.
• Plant growth withoutmycorrhizae is often
  stunted.
• fungus provides minerals from the soil for the
  plant, and the plant provides organic nutrients.

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Ecological Impact

• Between 10 and 50 of the worlds fruit harvest
  is lost each year to fungal attack.
• do not distinguish between wood debris and human
  structures built of wood.
• 30 of the 100,000 known species of fungi are
  parasites, mostly on or in plants
• about 50 fungal species are known to parasitize
  humans and other animals
• fungal infection is mycosis Athletes foot, yeast
  infections, stachybotrys??
• Used as hallucinogens Also used a great deal in
  the food and medical industry.

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References

• Jack Brown M.S. Biology
• Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2004
• Starr and Taggart The Unity and Diversity of
  Life 10th edition 2004 Thomson Brookes/Cole
• Campbell and Reece Biology 6th edition 2002
  Benjamin Cummings.
• Raven and Johnson Holt Biology 2004 Holt,
  Rinehart and Winston.