Fungi Flashcards
Do fungi make their own food?
No
What are fungi made up of?
Made up of threads called hyphae.
What do hyphae combine in masses to form?
Mycelium
What are their walls made out of?
Carbohydrate called chitin
What group do fungi fall into when it comes to how they obtain energy?
They are heterotrophs
What is the definition of heterotrophs?
They take in food made by other organisms
Fungi are either:
Parasitic
Saprophytic
Are most fungi saprophytic?
Yes, most fungi are saprophytic.
How do saprophytic fungi obtain nutrients?
From dead material.
What role do saprophytic play in the environment?
They are responsible for decay.
Examples of saprophytic fungi…
Mushrooms and moulds
How do parasitic fungi obtain nutrients?
Absorb their food from live hosts.
Where do parasitic fungi mainly get their food from?
Mostly from plants, although some fungal parasites live on animals eg. athlete’s food.
What are obligate parasites?
They live on live hosts but do not normally kill them.
What are facultative parasites?
They kill the host and feed on the remains.
What do some fungi do?
Form symbiotic relationships with other organisms
Give an example of a symbiotic relationship between a fungi and another organism
A lichen is an organism which is a combination of a fungus and an alga.
Are fungi edible?
Yes, but many are poisonous if eaten.
Describe yeast.
- Single celled
- Round or oval
- Thin walls made of chitin
- One nucleus
- Dense cytoplasm/ many food storage vacuoles
How does yeast respire?
Anaerobically
What is the asexual reproduction in yeast called?
Budding
How does the parent cell in budding divide?
Divides by mitosis.
Where does on of the daughter nuclei go?
Enters a small developing bud on the outside of the yeast.
What happens to developing bud on the outside of the yeast?
It can separate to become a new individual.
What happens in some cases of budding?
The bud does not separate but can itself bud too. In this way long colonies of yeast cells develop.
What can beneficial fungi do?
- Yeasts can make bread and alcohols such as wine and beer.
- Fungi can also be a source of food eg. mushrooms
What can harmful fungi do?
- Attack crops eg. corn, wheat potato blight
- Athlete’s foot and ringworm can infect animals
- Fungi can spoil food eg. rhizopus grows on bread
What does aseptic/asepsis mean?
That measures are taken to exclude unwanted micro-organisms.
What does sterile mean?
That all micro-organisms are destroyed, there is nothing living.
Name the experiment involved with the fungi chapter.
-To investigate the growth of leaf yeast using agar plates.
Are fungi eukaryotic?
Yes
What does aseptate mean?
It does not have cross walls separating its cytoplasm into separate cells
What is rhizopus?
- Bread mold
- A multicellular, saprophytic fungus with aseptate hyphae
What is Saccharomyces?
- Yeast
- A unicellular saprophytic fungus
What two ways can rhizopus reproduce?
- Asexually
- Sexually
In what conditions does rhizopus sexually reproduce?
Occurs only in adverse conditions, i.e dehydration
