1. 7.4 Fungi Key concepts: what characteristics do fungi share?
How do fungi reproduce?
What roles do fungi play in nature?
Key terms:
Fungi
Hyphae
Fruiting body
Budding
Lichen

2. What are fungi?
Fungi: eukaryotes that have cell walls, are heterotrophs that feed by absorbing their food, and use spores to reproduce Usually need moist warm places

3. Cell stucture
Fungi range in size from tiny unicellular yeasts to large mushroom things
Most are arranged in structures called hyphae – branching, threadlike tubes that make up the multicellular bodies
Hyphae of some fungi are continuous threads of cytoplasm that contain many nuclei
What a fungus looks like depends on how its hyphae are arranged

4. Obtaining food
Fungi absorb food through hyphae that grow into a food source
First, the fungus grows hyphae into the food source
Then, digestive chemicals ooze into the food
The chemicals break down the food and it is absorbed

5. Reproduction
Fungi usually reproduce by making spores. The lightweight spores are surrounded by a protective covering and can be carried easily through air or water to new sites
Fungi produce spores in reproductive structures called fruiting bodies – varies among different fungi

6. Asexual reproduction
Most fungi reproduce both asexually and sexually. (….what…???)
WHEN there is adequate moisture and food, they reproduce asexually. Cells at the tips of the hyphae divide to form spores
Unicellular yeasts undergo budding – no spores are produced, instead a small yeast cell grows from the body of the parent and then breaks away and lives on its own

7. Sexual reproduction Most fungi can reproduce sexually
Hyphae of the two fungi grow together and genetic material is exchanged. Eventually, a new structure grows from the joined hyphae and produces spores. The spores develop into fungi that differ genetically from either parent.

8. Classification of fungi
Three major groups
Club – produce spores in tiny clublike structures (mushrooms, rusts, puffballs)
Sac – produce spores that look like sacs (yeasts, morels, truffles)
Zygote – produce resistant spores (fruit and bread molds)

9. Fungi roles Provide foods, decompose, recycle
Some cause disease, some fight disease
Foods – yeasts, molds, mushrooms

10. More roles Decomposers Disease fighters – penicillin
Disease causers – athlete’s foot
Fungus-plant root
Help plants grow larger by growing on or into plants’ roots
Lichens – fungus and algae or autotrophic bacteria that live together in mutualism. Often called “pioneer” organisms because they are the first to appear on bare rocks in an area.