Plantae Fungi Animalia

Protista

Monera

Kingdom Fungi About 100,000 species

Uses: • medicine• food

Ecological value:• major decomposers• symbiotic relationships (N2 fixers)

Problems:• some strains are deadly• athletes foot• destroy library books• destroy crops

• About 30% of the 100,000 known species of fungi are parasites, mostly on or in plants.– American elms:

Dutch Elm Disease

Some fungi are pathogens

Was once one of America's most dominant trees

–American chestnut:

chestnut blight

• Other fungi, such as rusts and ergots, infect grain crops, causing tremendous economic losses each year.

Some fungi are pathogens

• Curse of the Mummy

Some fungi are pathogens

            

                  

Athletes Foot

Some fungi are persistant

Fungi as Decomposers

Kingdom Fungi

Eukaryotic, absorptive

Mostly multicellular (except few, e.g. yeast)

Heterotrophic (decomposers & parasitic)

Mycelium (body of hyphae)

Kingdom Fungi

• Firm cell walls (generally of “chitin”)

• “Spores” as reproductive bodies

• Unique chromosomes and nuclei

• Includes molds, yeasts, rusts, and mushrooms

• hyphae - the vegetative bodies of most fungi, constructed of tiny filaments

• mycelium -an interwoven mat of hyphae

Human hair

Fungal hypha

Septate hypha:• multicellular• walls divided by septa

Ceonocytic hypha:• continuous cytoplasm

mass• multinucleate• no septa

Haustoria:

• Modified hyphae found in parasitic fungi

• Function: absorb nutrients from host

• Some fungi even have hyphae adapted for preying on animals.

Kingdom Fungi

Division Chytridiomycota

Division Ascomycota

Division Glomeromycota

Division Basidiomycota

Division Zygomycota

Division Deuteromycota

Fig. 31-11

Chytrids (1,000 species)

Zygomycetes (1,000 species)

Hyphae 25 µm

Glomeromycetes (160 species)

Fungal hypha

Ascomycetes (65,000 species)

Basidiomycetes (30,000 species)

Fungus-like protist

Deuteromycota?

• The five fungal phyla can be distinguished by their reproductive features.

• mainly aquatic.

• Some are saprobes, while others parasitize protists, plants, and animals.

• chitinous cell wall

• flagellated zoospores

• the most primitive fungi

Division Chytridiomycota

Division Zygomycota

“Zygote fungi”(bread molds)

Zygote = “mated” hyphal strands

Live in soil, water

Some are parasites

600 species

Mated hyphal strands

• The zygosporangia are resistant to freezing and drying.

• When conditions improve, the zygosporangia release haploid spores that colonize new substrates.– Pilobolus aiming its spores.

• The zygomycete Rhizopus can reproduce either asexually or sexually.

PHYLUM GLOMEROMYCOTA

• Previously With Zygomycota

• Small Monophyletic Clade

• Endomycorrhizae – Arbuscular Mycorrhizae

• Produce branching Arbuscules

Fig. 31-15

2.5 µm

Plant-Fungal Relationships

Mycorrhizae (“fungus roots”)

90% of tree species have this association

Very important to absorption of water and nutrients

Soil surface

Plant roots

Mycorrhizae

Increases s.a. for absorption

Division Ascomycota

“Sac fungi”(truffles, yeast)

Beer > 6,000 years

Wine > 8,000 years

Lichens

Decomposers, pathogens

60,000 species“yeast” describes a form of fungi (i.e., non-hyphal)

Division Ascomycota

Scarlet cup

truffles Morchella

Roquefort cheeseClose up of cheese showing blue-green mycelium of Penicillium roqueforti.

Division Ascomycota

Yeast

LICHENS

Crusrose

Foliose Fruticose

Lichen

Lichen Anatomy

• Ascomycetes are characterized by an extensive heterokaryotic stage during the formation of ascocarps.

Division Basidiomycota

“Club fungi”(mushrooms)

Club-shaped reproductive structure

Food

Plant diseases

25,000 species

Fairy Ring

• The life cycle of a club fungus usually includes a long-lived dikaryotic mycelium.

PHYLUM DEUTEROMYCOTANo Longer Exist!!

• 22,000 species.• No known sexual stage.• Saprophytic, parasitic and predatory.• Many produce conidia. • Most classified as Ascomycota.• Fusarium wilt of tomato, potato and

cotton.• Athletes foot, ring worm

Division Deuteromycota

“Imperfect fungi”(penicillin)

Unrelated group

Asexual

No info on sexual cycle

25,000 species

Penicillin

Woops…now Ascomycota

Candida albicans“yeast infection”

Botrytis: “Noble Rot”