Mushrooms are fungal fruiting bodies.
Fungi are more closely related to animals than plants.
Single-celled fungi are generally called yeast.
Multi-cellular fungi are generally called mold.
- Fungi
- Are heterotrophs, get their food externally.
- Saprophytes
- Chemically absorb their food via extracellular digestion.
If fungi have flagellum for sexual reproduction, the flagellum is single and posterior on gametes.
- Fruiting Bodies
- Sex organs
- Mushrooms
- Spores
- Fungal equivalent of seeds.
- Fungal spores are haploid, one copy of genome.
- Ophisthokonts
- Outgroup of animals and fungi.
- Yeast
- Single-celled fungi.
- Fungal cell walls are strengthened by chitin polysaccharides (glucose).
- Fungi have cell walls & cell membranes.
Table 1: A fungus is not a plant
| Fungus | Animal | Plant | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chitin | yes | yes | no |
| Food storage | glycogen | glycogen | starch |
- Mycelium
- The "body" of a multicellular fungus can either be septate or coenocytic.
- Composed of hyphae.
- Mycelia
- Interwoven filaments of hyphae.
- Septate
- ?
- Coenocytic
- ?
- Reproduction of Fungi
- Mostly asexual, some sexual.
- Spores (n) germinate into haploid offspring.
- Most fungi spend most of their life in a haploid state, reproducing asexually.
- Microsporidia
- Outgroup for fungi.
- Unicellular
- No true mitochondria.
- Intracellular parasite of animals.
- Chytids
- Some chytids produce flagellated male and female gametes from a multicellular haploid stage.
- Female gamete vs. male gamete in fungi?
- Zygomycetes Zygomycota
- Remain dormant for months during harsh conditions.
- Glomeromycete Fungi
- Micorrhizae, symbiotic w/ vascular plant roots and fungi.
- Fungi in plant root systems.
- Ascomycetes Sac fungi
- Sexual, haploids mating.
- Penicillin is harvested from fungi, kills bacteria by interfering w/ bacterial wall synthesis.
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Zombie Ant Fungus is an ascomycete cordyceps.
- Basidiomycetes Classic mushrooms
- Often psychedelic/poisonous.
-
Fairy ring, expanding group of fungi expands outward in a circle after it consumes inner nutrients.
- Saprophytic Fungi & bacteria
- Are major decomposers of organic matter (cellulose, lignin, & keratin).
- Haustoria
- Branchings that push through cell wall & membrane to harvest nutrients from hosts.
- Lichen
- Fungi + photosynthetic microorganism live in a symbiotic relationship.
- Lichens reproduce by soredium, broken off parts that form new colonies.
- Ergosterol
- Needed for plasma membranes in fungi.
- Fungal spores are haploid. Germinate into haploid offspring.
- Chytrid fungi affect amphibians.
- Add mycorrizae to hydroponics plant roots?
Study Guide
Name at least two synapomorphies that are common between fungi and animals: what traits make fungi more closely related to animals vs. plants? Review: 'synapomorphy' definition: a trait present in an ancestral line of organisms, that is then shared by all the evolutionary descendants of that line; or the presence in 2+ different organisms of the same characteristic (even in a modified form) which share that trait because it originated from their common ancestor 2. What is remarkable about fungal habitats? Are they live, dead, or both? 3. Are most fungi single-cells or are most fungi multicellular? Name two single-celled fungi. 4. What makes the cell walls of fungal cells different from plant cell walls? 5. What is chitin? What are the building blocks? 6. What is ergosterol, where is it found, what does it do, and why is it medically important? 7. What are mycelia? What are haustoria; why are they different than other mycelia? Name a fungi with haustoria. 8. Describe the two different types of hyphae - based on how the cells are organized. 9. What is are the biological purposes of hyphae, meaning to what advantage, or why would an organism evolve to have them? 10. Are fungi sexual or asexual or both? 11. What’s the difference between 'fungi' and yeasts? 12. Are spores haploid or diploid, what is karyogamy, what does 'dikaryon' mean? 13. Does mitosis occur in sexual or asexual plant growth? Tricky: look at slide life cycles. 14. What are the six (6) main groups of fungi? a. Name one distinguishing characteristic of each, setting them apart from other groups b. Name at least one example fungus in each group - where does it grow? 15. Why are microsporidia an “outgroup”? What synapomorphy makes them different. 16. Where are chytrids found? 17. How are chytrids affecting amphibians? 18. What is interesting about a zygosporangium structure? Is it haploid or diploid? 19. What is the defining feature of an ascomycete fungus? Name three common ascomycetes? 20. Are ascomycete fungi haploid or diploid? 21. How do fungi make ants crazy (watch video)? 22. Why do leaf cutter ants ‘farm’ fungi? 23. What is unique about basidiomycetes? Name four common basidiomycetes. 24. Why are fairy rings shaped like that? Why aren’t there clubs or fruiting bodies in the center of the ring? 25. What is the evidence that ancient fungi existed? 26. Why are fungi critical to the carbon cycle? What do they breakdown, what do they produce/create? Vocabulary: o Heterotroph o Chemoheterotroph o Saprophyte o Symbiosis o Mutialism o Parasite o Hyphae o Septa o Coenocytic o Haustoria o Mycelia o Arbuscular o Micorrhizae o Soredia o Mushroom vs. fruiting body o Thrush o Dikaryon o Plasmogamy o Karyogamy o Spore 2 o Sporangia o Conidia o Zygote o Ascus