Basic Information on Fungi Kingdom:
- Fungi are a eukaryotic, primarily multicellular group. Most of them have cell walls
made of chitin.
- All fungi are hetereotrophs, acquiring their nutrients by absorption. There are saprobic
decomposers, parasitic species and mutualistic forms.
- The fungal vegetative bodies consist of mycelia, netlike collections of branched hyphae
adapted for absorption. Parasitic fungi penetrate their hosts with specialized hyphae called
haustoraia.
- Fungi reproduce by dispersing enormous numbers of spore.
- Fungal life cycles vary by division but generally start with haploid mycelia. Early
reproduction is usually asexual and later reproduction is sexual.
- The sexual cycle involves cell fusion and nuclear fusion, with an intervening dikaryotic
stage. The diploid phase is short-lived and rapidly undergoes meiosis to produce haploid
spores.
- The zygote fungi of the division Zygomycota, fungi that live in soil or decaying organic
matter, include the familiar black bread mold. Asexual spores develop in areial sporangia.
The division is named for its sexually produced zygosporangia, which are dikaryotic
structures capable of persisting through unfavorable conditions.
- The sac fungi of the division Ascomycota include plant parasites, fungal components of
lichens, and saprobes. Asexual reproduction by conidia is common. Sexual reproduction
involves the formation of spores in sacs or asci, at the ends of dikaryotic hyphea, usually in
ascocarps.
- The Basidiomycota include mushrooms, shelf fungi, puffballs, and rusts. Mycelia of
club fungi can last years as dikaryons. Sexual reproduction involves the formation of spores
on club-shaped basidia at the ends of dikaryotic hyphea in fruiting bodies, such as
mushrooms.
- Molds are either asexual stages of fungi classified as zygomycetes, asomycetes, or
basidiomycetes. Molds are important in the commercial production of antibiotics, such as
penicillin.
- Yeasts are unicellular fungi adapted to life in liquids such as plant saps. They may be
classified as single organisms.
- Lichens are such highly integrated symbiotic associations of algea and fungi that they are
classified as single organisms. Lichens are rugged organisms that set the stage for plant
growth by slowly breaking down bare rocks.
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