1. Fungi

2. Multicellular except for yeast
Cell walls made of chitin
Mycelium – body of the fungus
Hyphae – filaments that make up the mycelium
Classified by method of sexual reproduction; can also reproduce asexually
-Myco or -mycete = fungi
Heterotrophic by absorption
Decomposers - feeding on dead and decaying organisms or parasitic – living in or on another organism, possibly causing disease
NO chlorophyll! NOT photosynthetic

4. Three phyla of fungi, based on method of sexual reproduction:
Kingdom Fungi
Three phyla of fungi, based on method of sexual reproduction:
Zygomycota
Basidiomycota
Ascomycota
Use the information in the following slides to complete the table in your notes.
Note that some fungi are classified as Deuteromycota or Fungi Imperfecti because the method of sexual reproduction has not been discovered. When it is, they will be placed in the appropriate phylum.
Protist that gave rise to the fungi

5. Zygomycota
Fungi that reproduce with zygosporangia – structures resistant to freezing and drying, allowing the organism to live through “tough times”
Have no walls in their hyphae (multinucleate cells)
Ex) Pilobus (top picture) can aim its sporangia toward light where grass is likely to be growing, then shoot spores to the grass. Important because they depend on grazing animals, like cows, to scatter the spores through feces.
Ex) Rhizopus stolonifer - black bread mold (bottom picture); diagram p. 485

6. Basidiomycota – club fungi
Fungi that reproduce with basidia (an external club-like structure found under the cap of a mushroom) that bear spores
Hyphae are divided by walls, but usually walls are incomplete so cytoplasm can still move from cell to cell; important in “eating”
Ex) mushrooms, puffballs, rusts, smuts, shelf fungi
Stinkhorn fungus
mushroom
Shelf fungus

7. Fairy ring – results from the outward growth in all directions of a basidiomycete (mushroom); the structures visible above the ground are the reproductive structures; the body of the fungus (mycelium) is in the ground

8. Examples of basidiomycetes
Rusts, smuts, & ergots
Fun Fungi Fact:
Ergots – can cause gangrene, nervous spasms, burning sensations, hallucinations, temporary insanity, and death when accidentally ingested
In 944 A.D. more than 40,000 people died in France from ergot poisoning. It contains one of the active ingredients found in LSD.
Oddly enough, it has been used for medicinal purposes in treating high blood pressure and stopping maternal bleeding following childbirth
Some of the “witch hunts” of 17th century America have been attributed to ergot poisoning as it is a common pest in rye.

9. Ex) cup fungi, yeast, morels, truffles
Ascomycota – sac fungi
Fungi that reproduce with internal sac-like structures called asci that are full of spores
Hyphae are divided by walls, but usually walls are incomplete so cytoplasm can still move from cell to cell; important in “eating”
Ex) cup fungi, yeast, morels, truffles
An edible morel
Truffle – worth $600 a pound

10. (study guide question 8)
Yeast budding
(study guide question 8)
Budding – asexual reproduction
Yeast are ascomycetes

11. Mold
Note the zone of inhibition around this Penicillium
Penicillium - an ascomycete commonly called “mold” that naturally produces an antibiotic
bacteria

12. What color are fungi NOT
What color are fungi NOT? What is missing in the fungi that would make them that color? (Hint: look at the autotrophic, multicellular organism with cellulose in its cell walls surrounding many of these fungi)
Answer: CHLOROPHYLL
HOW is that evidence that fungi are heterotrophic? What is missing in the fungal cells that are present in the other organism’s cells????
Answer: No cholophyll means no chloroplasts. No chloroplasts means no photosynthesis. No photosynthesis means heterotroph.

13. Fungal Partnerships
Symbiotic relationship – one in which two species live together in a close, long-term association
ex) mutualism – both benefit (mycorrhizae & lichens)
ex) parasitism – host organism is harmed, the parasite benefits
ex) commensalism – one organism is neither harmed nor benefits, the other benefits

14. Fungi are heterotrophic
Fungi are heterotrophic. Parasitic fungi penetrate a living organism with specialized hyphae to allow the fungus to absorb nutrients from its host.
Other fungi can prey on organisms that wander into its path by trapping the prey with specialized hyphae upon contact and then penetrating the organism with a different type of hyphae (nematode caught by fungus)

15. Lichen – mutualistic relationship between a photosynthetic organism and a fungus
- important pioneer species, especially in primary succession

16. Effects of mycorrhizae(word parts – “fungus root”) on plant growth
Myccorhizae – mutualistic relationship between a fungus and a plant root
- the plant supplies the fungus with carbohydrates while the fungus absorbs phosphorus and other minerals from the soil and passes them to the plant, which would be unable to get these minerals without mycorrhizae
- fossilized plants have mycorrhizae, showing that they probably couldn’t have moved on to land without fungi!
Fun Fungus Fact: Most mushrooms that grow at the base of trees are actually the reproductive structures of mycocorrhizae
Plant without Plant with
mycorrhizae mycorrhizae

17. Fungi and animals evolved from a common, flagellated, protistan ancestor
Animals probably evolved from aquatic flagellated organisms too.
Molecular evidence from comparisons of several proteins and ribosomal RNA indicates that fungi are more closely related to animals than to plants.
Remember the chitin!!!!

18. Important Fungal Traits
Principal decomposers
Pioneer species
Pollution indicators (p. 492)
Nitrogen fixers
Symbionts
Antibiotic producers
Also, flavor cheese, make bread rise, used in beer brewing, & wine making, as well as providing a food source for many organisms (mushrooms!)