Extra Cellular Digestion In Saprophytic Fungus By Elizabeth Drury

Fungi are not consumers unlike animals. They are either saprophytes (decomposers) or pathogens. Therefore use saprophytic nutrition. This means they do not ingest food but use extra cellular digestion.

Extracellular Digestion This means that the fungi secrete digestive enzymes. These digestive enzymes are carbohydrases, proteases and lipases. These are secreted in to the material around them which enables them to absorb the soluble products such as amino acids and sugars.

Hyphae Fungi is composed of thin threads called hyphae. These grow quickly penetrating dead materials such as leaves. When mould grows on bread it looks like cotton wool but is in fact a mass of hyphae.

Hyphae This mass of hyphae is also known as a fungi mycelium. The hyphae gives the fungi a large surface area to volume ratio. They also contain many nuclei.