Fungi Flashcards
1
Q
Describe Fungi?
A
- Can be single or multicellular
- Heterotrophs (specialized to extract nutrients from surroundings)
- Can have asexual or sexual reproduction
2
Q
What is a hyphae?
A
- Long slender filaments
- Some divided into septa
- Cytoplasms flow throughout hyphae
- How most fungi grow
3
Q
What is a mass of connected hyphae called?
A
Mycelium
4
Q
Describe mycelium?
A
- Grow together and digest substrate
- The cell walls of fungi are formed of polysaccharides (includes chitin)
5
Q
Describe the nucleus of hyphae cells?
A
- May have more than one nucleus
- Monokaryotic (one nucleus) and dikaryotic (2 nuclei in one cell)
- Sometimes many nuclei intermingle in the common cytoplasm of the fungal mycelium
6
Q
What are spores?
A
- Most common means of reproduction among fungi
- Spores are always haploid
- Originally flagellated but now mainly disperse by wind, insects and animals
7
Q
Describe digestion in Fungi?
A
- Obtain food by secreting digestive enzymes
- They absorb organic molecules produced by the digestive enzymes through external digestion
- Some fungi are carnivorous
- They can break down cellulose and lignin
8
Q
Describe Microsporidia?
A
- Parasites that infect animals
- Unicellular
9
Q
Describe Blastocladiomycota?
A
- mycota=fungi
- Parasites
- Water molds
- Flagellated spores
- Aquatic
- Haploid and diploid life cycle
10
Q
Describe Chytridiomycota?
A
- AKA “chytrids”
- Most closely related to ancestral fungi
- Have flagellated spores
- Have chitin in cell walls
- Haploidiplontic
- Chytridiomycosis: contributing factor for worldwide decline in amphibian populations
11
Q
Describe Neocallimastigamycota?
A
- Digest plant biomass in mammalian herbivore rumens (mammal depends on fungi fo sufficient calories
- Spores have multiple flagella
12
Q
Describe Zygomycota?
A
- Diverse
- Include common bread molds and few human pathogens
- Lack septa in hyphae except when they’re reproducing
- Most of their cycle they exist as haploid
- Both sexual and asexual reproduction
- Have dikaryotic stage
13
Q
Describe Glomeromycota?
A
- Tiny group of monophyletic fungi
- Asexual reproduction
- Form intracellular associations with plant roots called arbuscular mycorrhizae
- Mycorrhizae: help roots to absorb more nutrients
14
Q
Describe Basidiomycota?
A
- Has some of most familiar fungi (mushrooms, puffballs)
- Produce many toxins
- Spore germination leads to production of haploid mycelium
- Mycelium may fuse and cause fertilization which makes it dikaryotic
- Basidiocarp: where spores are made
15
Q
Describe Ascomycota?
A
- Has about 75% known fungi
- Bread yeasts, common molds, some serious plant pathogens, cup fungi, and morels
- Yeasts are unicellular ascomycetes (reproduce asexually by budding)
- Saccharomyces Cerevisiae: yeast used to make bread, beer, wine
