The Fungi Kingdom Flashcards
What is the key difference between plants and fungi?
Fungi do not photosynthesize
They are heterotrophs
What supergroup does fungi belong to?
Unikonta supergroup, same as animals
What is the common ancestor of Fungi and Animals?
likely a unicellular protist with flagella
What are chytrids?
one fungi group that still produce spores with flagella
What is the symbiotic relationship between plants and fungi?
plants colonized land 470 millions years ago, but fungi could have helped by softening mineral surfaces
How do fungi absorb nutrients?
Externally, by secreting enzymes into their environment and absorbing broken down nutrients through their cell wall and plasma membrane
Since fungi digest externally, what kind of feeders can they be?
decomposers (dead material)
parasites or pathogens (live material)
mutualists
Which structure of the fungi is responsible for nutrient absorption?
Hyphae
network in the ground, the main body of the fungus
What are hyphae?
tiny filaments that consists of cells surrounded by cell walls
cell walls are made of chitin to prevent bursting since cells are very hypertonic, constantly
What is mycelium?
interwoven mass of the network of Hyphae, which is the main body mass of multicellular fungi
What is the reproductive structure?
often the visible region of the fungi, which releases reproductive spores after either sexual or asexual reproduction
What are spores?
Haploid (n) cells that are released into air or water, millions at time, to develop into full mycelium
What can fungi not do?
migrate
Which stages of fungi reproduction are often temporary?
the diploid (2n) stages
Describe sexual reproduction.
Plasmogamy: fusion of cytoplasm into the heterokaryotic stage
Karyogamy: fusion of nuclei into a diploid zygote
Meiosis: gives rise to spores
Germination: spores turn into mycelium
Mycelium continue sexual reproduction or into asexual reproduction
Describe asexual reproduction.
Spores of Haploid (n) cells go through mitosis and germinate
What is yeast?
single-celled fungi
can be generalists, decomposers, mutualistic, or pathogenic
What are decomposers?
breakdown dead material
they ensure ecosystems are stocked with essential minerals, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and other elements that would be locked up in dead matter
w/o them, life would lack of atomic material
What are pathogens/parasites?
absorb food from living hosts
parasites don’t kill the host, but weaken and harm it
pathogens can ultimately kill their host
What is mutualism?
relationship where both species benefit
often absorb food from living host, but the fungi reciprocates by providing some benefit to the host
What is Mycorrhizae?
mutualistic fungi that interact in root systems
What are Arbuscules?
Hyphae that will infiltrate the root cells of plants, and absorb nutrients/sugar
What can fungi do for plants?
breakdown and deliver phosphate, nitrogen, minerals, which most plants cannot do with much efficiency
What is Lichen?
mutualistic relationship between algae or cyanobacteria and fungi
provides carbon sugars for food and energy
What are practical uses for fungi?
recycling nutrients within the ecosystem
baking (S. cerevisiae)
Antibiotics (Penicillium for Penicillin)
What are Chytrids?
Earliest fungi to evolve
spores have flagella
zoospores are thus motile, requiring water
live in lakes, wet soils, moist areas
are decomposers, parasites, and mutualists
What are Zygomycetes?
mainly terrestrial
food molds: like bread mold, Rhizopus
are decomposers, parasites, and mutualists
uses both sexual and asexual reproduction
reproductive structures are zygospores (form when two haploid hyphae fuse into a structure called the Zygosporangium)
What are Glomeromycetes?
mainly terrestrial
are mutualists: Arbuscule Mycorrhizae
What are Ascomycetes?
mainly terrestrial
are decomposers, parasites, and mutualists
includes yeast
asexual and sexual
reproductive structures are ascospores which form in a sac called an Ascus
very diverse
What are Basidiomycetes?
mainly terrestrial
mainly decomposers, some parasites and mutualists
reproductive structures are Basidia (grow along strips of tissue called gills on the underside of the mushroom, where basidiospore form.
