Week 1: The Many Ways of Fungi

Question 1

What defines fungus?

Answer 1

Kingdom: Fungi

• -Group of Eukaryotic organisms such as yeasts, molds and mushrooms.
• -Cell walls contain Chitin.
• -Heterotrophs.
• -Do not photosynthesize.
• -Less compartmentation between cells than other eukaryotes.

Question 2

Eukaryote

Answer 2

Kingdom: Plantae, Fungi, Animalia
Domain: Eukaryota
–Organisms whose cells have a nucleus enclosed within a nuclear envelope. May be uni or multi-cellular.

Question 3

Chitin

Answer 3

• -Primary component in cell walls of fungi, the exoskeletons of arthropods, cephalopod beaks and fish scales.
• -A long chain polymer, polysaccharide.
• -Structure comparable to cellulose, forming crystalline nanofibrils.
• -Functionally comparable to keratin.

Question 4

Heterotroph

Answer 4

• -An organism that cannot produce it’s own food.
• -Chemoheterotroph: uses chemical energy (humans & mushrooms)
• -Saprotrophs (lysotophs): use extracellular digestion in processing decayed organic matter.

Question 5

Prokaryote

Answer 5

Domain: Bacteria, Archaea

–A cellular organism that lacks an envelope enclosed nucleus. Asexual reproduction with some horizontal gene transfer.

Question 6

Chemoheterotroph

Answer 6

Organism that uses chemical energy (humans & mushrooms).

Question 7

Saprotroph

Answer 7

Also lysotrophs:

Organisms that use extracellular digestion in processing decayed organic matter.

Question 8

Yeast

Answer 8

Kingdom: Fungi
Order: Saccharomycetales
Phylum: Ascomycota
–Eukaryotic, single-celled micro-organisms.
–1% of all fungal species
–Asexual reproduction via mitosis through asymmetrical budding.

Question 9

Mycelium

Answer 9

Vegetative part of a fungus or fungus like bacterial colony consisting of a mass of branching, threadlike hyphae.
–Used to absorb nutrients from the environment by secreting enzymes onto the food source to break it down to smaller units.

Question 10

Hyphae

Answer 10

Long branching filamentous structure of a fungus. Main mode of vegetative growth.

Question 11

Spore

Answer 11

A unit of sexual or asexual reproduction, adapted for dispersal.

Question 12

Microfungi

Answer 12

Also Micromycetes:

• -Paraphyletic group with no large multicellular fruiting body.
• -Consist of hyphae and spores are produced by the mycelium.

Question 13

Macrofungi

Answer 13

Also Mushroom:

–fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus.

Question 14

Lichen

Answer 14

A composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.

Question 15

Four Ecological roles of Fungi

Answer 15

1-Endophytic/Mycorrhiza:
2-Decomposing
3-Pathogenic
4-