1. FUNGI

2. Largest organism in the world is a fungus
It occupies 2,384 acres (965 hectares) of soil in Oregon's Blue Mountains. This humongous fungus would encompass 1,665 football fields, or nearly four square miles (10 square kilometers) of turf.
~2,500 + years old
Honey mushrooms
Parasite of conifers

3. Fungi were the first land organisms probably as lichens.
Fungi were the largest land organisms at the time of the Bryophytes; giant fungi up to 9 meters tall. Prototaxites
sporophytes
Possibly a lichen?

4. reported to infect humans.
Over 600 fungal species
reported to infect humans.
Ringworm

5. Kingdom Fungi (Eukaryotic, multicellular, heterotrophic organisms, feeding by external digestion)
Rigid cell walls of chitin or cellulose
Hyphae = tubular thread-like cells
Mycelium = mat-like network of hyphae

8. Four Major Groups of Fungi
1) Chytridiomycota
--simplest fungi
& with flagellated cells in the life cycle
Previously grouped with the Protista

9. Skin parasites on amphibians & causing their
world-wide decline.

11. Four Major Groups of Fungi
1) Chytridiomycota
Note: both male & female
gametes have flagella
& so do the zygote
& the spores!

12. Four Major Groups of Fungi
2) Zygomycota Bread Mold fungus

13. Four Major Groups of Fungi
2) Zygomycota

14. Four Major Groups of Fungi
3) Ascomycota (= sac fungi; produce spores in sacs= asci)
Cup fungi

16. Penicillium fungus

17. Four Major Groups of Fungi
3) Ascomycota e.g. Yeast
C6H12O CH3CH20H + CO2 + ATP
Sugar Ethyl alcohol

18. Four Major Groups of Fungi
3) Ascomycota (= sac fungi; produce spores in sacs= asci)
e.g. Morel
Ascomycota produce the “earthy” smell of soil

19. Four Major Groups of Fungi
3) Ascomycota e.g. truffles (Underground fungi)

20. Truffles
The record price paid for a single white truffle was set in December 2007, when Macau casino owner Stanley Ho paid $330,000 (£165,000) for a specimen weighing 1.5kg (3.3lb), discovered by Luciano Savini and his dog Rocco

21. Four Major Groups of Fungi
4) Basidiomycota (= club fungi; produce spores in club-shaped structures= basidia)

22. Four Major Groups of Fungi
4) Basidiomycota (= club fungi; produce spores in club-shaped structures= basidia)

23. Four Major Groups of Fungi
4) Basidiomycota

24. Four Major Groups of Fungi
4) Basidiomycota
Polypores

25. Four Major Groups of Fungi
4) Basidiomycota
Coral Fungus

26. Types of Nutrition in Fungi
Heterotrophic
1) Parasitic (e.g. athlete’s foot, ring worm, jock itch;
Chestnut Blight; Potato Blight)
2) Predators (150 species of fungi trap and digest soil nematodes using adhesive knobs or loops)
3) Saprotrophic (= decomposers consuming dead organisms by external digestion)
4) Mutualistic (e.g. ants & “fungal farming,”
lichens & mycorrhizae)

27. Fungi as Parasites
Bat White Nose Syndrome

28. Fungi as Predators
Nematode Trapping Fungi

29. Fungi as Saprotrophs (Decomposers)

30. Fungi as Mutualists
Lichens

31. Algae (often green algae) + fungi
Fungus
Algae
Fungus
Fungus
Often yeasts are part of the symbiosis, meaning 2 fungi are involved.

32. Mycorrhizae = Symbiotic fungi living within the root system of plants.
80% of plant species depend on mycorrhizae
They gain photosynthetic products from plants
They greatly increase the surface area of roots ( times) & increase the uptake of water & minerals (especially nitrogen & phosphorous).
The fungi take in plant carbohydrates in exchange.
20% of photosynthesis can go to mycorrhizae

33. Mycorrhizae

35. Mycorrhizae

36. Many plant partners
The fungal network allows plants to exchange nutrients. Resource sharing by fungal networks.
More than 400 plants parasitize the system. They lack chlorophyll and don’t photosynthesize but rely on carbon from the mycorrhizae. (e.g. some orchids)

37. Two Types of Mycorrhizae
Glomeromycota

38. Different Reproductive Structures of the Phyla of Fungi

39. Fungus Evolution Dikarya (n + n) Glomeromycota Basidiomycota
Ascomycota
Chytridiomycota
Zygomycota
Dikarya
(n + n)
Flagellated protozoan

40. Fungus Evolution 400 mya Earliest fungal fossil 1.2 BYA Basidiomycota
Ascomycota
Glomeromycota
Chytridiomycota
Zygomycota
400 mya
Colonized land long before plants
Earliest fungal fossil 1.2 BYA
Flagellated protozoan

41. Where would you place the Ascomycota?
Flagellates B C A B C D E D E 1

42. Next Lecture:
ANIMALS &
THE CAMBRIAN
EXPLOSION