LESSON 7: D7 - Fungi Flashcards
What are some of the most common but least visible organisms on Earth?
Fungi
Where are fungi often found?
They are often out of sight like underground or within other organisms
Why are fungi important?
Fungi are essential in our ecosystems
–They decompose matter, are responsible for cycling the nutrients that help for growth of other organisms
Fungi are nature’s recycling centre
- Mycelium (a branched network of fungal filaments/threads) break down and absorb the necessary raw materials needed for plant growth and development (a clump of hypahe are called mycelium)
What important relationships do Fungi engage in?
symbiotic relationship with plants to help them obtain nutrients
How can Fungi be useful
Arigculture, foods, medicine
Mycorrhizae
-Is a symbiotic fungi
-The fungi portion has the ability to gain sugars and nutrients that the plants make during photosynthesis
–The plant portion has the ability to absorb certain nutrients from the soil like phosphorus
-Some plants can’t germaite (grow) without these mycorrhizae
-For development of foods in harsh climates
Lichens
-A combo of green algae or cyanobacteria and a fungus growing symbiotically
-Photosynthetic cyanobacteria and a sac fungus
Mycelium of fungus wraps around photosynthetic cells
-The fungus provides the algae with CO2, H2O and support
-The algae provides the fungi with carbohydrates
-This is a mutually beneficial interaction (i.e. mutualism)
Important in detecting air pollutants
What are harmful fungi?
-Some fungi are responsible for diseases that can affect both plants and animals
-Examples would include rot wood, ringworm, corn smut, pneumonia,
What do plants and Fungi have in common?
-Both are eukaryotic and have numerous organelles
-Both have a cell wall present
-Most are anchored in soil
-Both are stationary
-Both can reproduce sexually, asexually or both
Plants
Only 1 nucleus per cell
-Most are autotrophs
-Store ENERGY as starch
-Have roots
-Cell wall made up of cellulose
-Reproduce by seed
Fungi
-Can have many nuclei
-Are heterotrophs
-Few storage molecules
-No roots
-Cell wall made of chitin (a polysaccharide)
-Do not reproduce by seed
*Some fungi can be single celled
How many phyla is there of fungi? And who ddi they evolve from?
-5 phyla of fungi
-They evolved from common aquatic protist ancestor
What are the two reasons Fungi are adapted?
Digestion and Reproduction
Digestion in Fungi
Their digestion is extracellular (occurs outside the cell - fungi feed by secreting enzymes through the cell membrane)
-Once digestion has occurred, the nutrients are absorbed by mycelium, which is a mesh-like network of filaments called hyphae
-Mycelium often look like the “fuzz” we associate with mold
-Instead of taking food inside their bodies, fungi grow next to or within their food source and then release digestive enzymes into surroundings (then the fungi absorb the nutrients through cell membranes of the hyphae
Fungi reproduction
- One fungus sends out pheromones that are picked up and passed to a partner
-This binding comples each mycelium to send its hyphane toward the other
-They meet a fuse the cytoplasma of their cells, this is called plasmogany
-This then leads to the production of spores that each fungus is able to disperse
- Some fungus shoot their spors into the air, onto animals thatw ill drop them or into water
