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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