24.1 Characteristics of Fungi

• By the end of this section, you will be able to do the following: Heterotrophic Fungi use complex organic compounds as sources of energy and carbon.
• Chitin is found in arthropods and is found in their cell walls.
• In the hair and skin of animals, Fungi produce a number of pigments.
• Carbohydrates are stored as glycogen by the fungi.

• Likebacteria, the fungi absorb and break down the organic materials on the cell surface, helping to recycle the vitamins and minerals.

• Some organisms only reproduce asexually, while others have both asexual and sexual reproduction.

• Fungi form beneficial or mutualistic associations with other organisms.
• Most plants formycorrhizal relationships with other plants.
• The exchange of mycorrhizae helps the survival of both species.
• A fungus and an alga are associated with lichens.

• Plants and animals are at risk of serious infections.
• The elm bark beetle is capable of spreading the disease from tree to tree.
• elm trees were decimated by the fungus in the 1900s.
• American elms are more susceptible to Dutch elm disease than European elms.

• Humans are considered to be difficult to treat for certain infections.
• Since they are eukaryotes, fungi do not respond to antibiotics.
• Individuals with compromised immune systems may be at risk for fatal infections.

• There are many commercial applications for Fungi.
• The food industry uses yeasts.
• Industrial compounds are the result of yeasty activity.
• The source of commercial antibiotics is Fungi.

• Since prehistoric times, humans have used yeasts and mushrooms, but the biology of them was poorly understood.
• Like plants, the Fungi are mostly in place.
• They have a stem-like structure similar to plants and a root-like mycelium in the soil.
• Their mode of nutrition was not understood.
• The pre-Cambrian era was 450 million years ago.
• The analysis of the fungal genome shows that they are more closely related to animals than to plants.
• They are a polyphyletic group of organisms that share characteristics, rather than sharing a single common ancestor.

• Many mycologists start their careers with a degree in microbiology, a branch of mycology.

• Taxonomy, cellular biology, plant pathology, and biochemistry are some of the topics mycologists can specialize in.
• The study of infectious diseases caused by mycoses is done by some medical microbiologists.

• Mycologists work with zoologists and plant pathologists to identify and control difficult fungal infections, such as the chestnut blight, the mysterious decline in frog populations in many areas of the world, or the deadly epidemic called white nose syndrome, which is decimating bats in the Eastern United States.

• Mycologists are hired by the government to monitor the health of crops, national parks, and national forests.
• Mycologists are employed in the private sector by companies that provide disease control services, as well as by companies that develop chemical and biological control products.
• Scientists with a good understanding of the role played by fungi in the preparation of alcohol and other important foods are often employed in the food technology industry.
• Oenology, the science of wine making, relies on a solid understanding of the characteristics of the wild yeasts that thrive in different wine-making regions.
• It is possible to purchase yeast strains isolated from grape-growing regions.
• The French chemist and microbiologist, Louis Pasteur, made many of his essential discoveries working on the yeast of the brewer's yeast.

• Fungi have a complex cellular organization.
• There is a nucleus in the cells.
• In other cells, histone is wrapped around the nucleus of the cell.
• The horizontal transfer of genetic information that occurs between one bacterium and another rarely occurs in fungi.
• The cells have a complex system of internal membranes, including the Golgi apparatus.

• The cells of the fungi do not have the same functions as plant cells.
• Red to green to black are some of the bright colors displayed by many fungi.
• The Amanita muscaria has a bright red cap with white patches.
• The cell wall has a protective role against ultraviolet radiation.
• Humans are exposed to some of the toxins of the fungus.

• The Amanita muscaria is native to North America.
• Chitin and glucans are found in the rigid layers of the cell walls.
• The cell is protected from desiccation by the wall.
• The structure of the Fungi's plasma membranes is stable by a steroid molecule called ergosterol, which replaces cholesterol found in animal cells.
• Most of the kingdom's members are nonmotile.
• The flagella are produced by the gametes in the primitive Phylum Chytridiomycota.

• A unicellular or multicellular thallus is the vegetative body of a fungus.
• yeasts are unicellular fungi.
• Threadlike hyphae are produced by multicellular fungi.
• Depending on the environment, dimorphic fungi can change from unicellular to multicellular state.

• The agent of candidiasis is a yeast cell called candida albicans.
• The yeast has a similar appearance to coccusbacteria.
• The vegetative and reproductive stages are displayed.
• The reproductive stage can be more visible than the vegetative stage.
• It can grow on a surface, in soil, in a liquid, or on living tissue.
• The giant Armillaria solidipes (honey mushroom) is believed to be at least 2,400 years old and is spread across more than 2,000 acres of underground soil in eastern Oregon.

• Humans can be affected by the mycelium of the fungus.
• The mycetoma is a chronic subcutaneous infection caused by the fungus.

• Tiny holes in the septa allow for the rapid flow of food and water from cell to cell.
• Perforated septa is what they are described as.
• The hyphae in bread molds are not separated by septa.

• They are formed by large cells containing many nuclei, which is called coenocytic hyphae.

• There are many nuclei present in a single hypha.
• A bright field light micrograph shows septa that divide the hyphae.

• Fungi thrive in environments that are moist and slightly acidic.
• They have different requirements for oxygen.
• They grow best in the presence of oxygen, but can survive if oxygen isn't available.
• Wine and beer are made from the alcohol produced from yeast.

• Like animals, fungi use complex organic compounds as a source of carbon, rather than fixing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
• Nitrogen does not come from the atmosphere.
• They must get it from their diet.
• Unlike most animals, which ingest food and then digest it internally in specialized organs, fungi perform these steps in the reverse order.
• The exoenzymes are transported from the hyphae to the environment.
• The small molecule produced by this external digestion are absorbed through the large surface area of the mycelium.
• The polysaccharide of storage is glycogen, a branched polysaccaride, rather than amylopectin, a less densely branched polysaccharide, and amylose, a linear polysaccharide, as found in plants.

• They get their nutrition from dead or decomposing organic material.
• The insoluble compounds of dead wood can be broken down into readily absorbable sugars.
• The elements are released into the environment.
• Because of their varied pathways, fungi are being investigated as potential tools in bioremediation of damaged ecosystems.
• Some species of fungi can be used to break down diesel oil.
• The species take up heavy metals.

• Plants and animals are infecting some fungi.
• Plants are affected by Smut and Dutch elm disease, whereas athlete's foot and candidiasis affect humans.
• Small non-segmented roundworms are preyed on by some fungi in environments poor in nitrogen.
• There are a number of mechanisms that the species of Arthrobotrys fungi have.
• The rings swell when they touch the nematode.

• Sexually and asexually, Fungi reproduce.
• The perfect fungi reproduce both sexually and asexually.

• In both sexual and asexual reproduction, the parent organisms can be found floating on the wind or hitching a ride on an animal.
• Plants have larger and heavier plant seeds.
• The giant puffball mushroom releases trillions of spores in a cloud of fine particulate dust when it burst open.
• The likelihood of landing in an environment that will support growth is increased by the large number of spores released.

• When the giant puffball mushroom reaches maturity, it releases a cloud of spores.

• Fungi reproduce asexually by various processes.
• New colonies can grow from fragments of hyphae.

• During budding, a bulge forms on the side of the cell, the nucleus divides, and the bud detaches itself from the mother cell.

• Budding in Histoplasma.
• The yeast Histoplasma capsulatum is seen against a backdrop of light blue tissue in the bright field light micrograph.
• Histoplasmosis is a potentially fatal disease that can be caused by histoplasma.

• The most common mode of asexual reproduction is the formation of asexual spores, which are produced by a single individual thallus and are genetically identical to the parent thallus.
• fungi can expand their distribution and colonize new environments.

• A generalized life cycle.
• The sexual and asexual stages of reproduction are possible.

• There are many types of asexual organisms.
• Some of the asexual spores have a thick wall surrounding them, and some have single cells that are released as spores.
• Some bud off the parent cell.
• sporangiums are the same as conidiospores in that they are 888-609- 888-609- 888-609- 888-609- 888-609-

• A bright field light micrograph shows the release of a sporangium at the end of a hypha.
• The organisms is Mucor sp.