Fungi

Introduction to the Fungi
The Kingdom Fungi includes some of the most important organisms, both in terms of their ecological
and economic roles. By breaking down dead organic material, they continue the cycle of nutrients
through ecosystems. In addition, most vascular plants could not grow without the symbiotic fungi,
or mycorrhizae, that inhabit their roots and supply essential nutrients. Other fungi provide numerous
drugs (such as penicillin and other antibiotics), foods like mushrooms, truffles and morels, and the
bubbles in bread, champagne, and beer.
Fungi also cause a number of plant and animal diseases: in humans, ringworm, athlete's foot, and
several more serious diseases are caused by fungi. Because fungi are more chemically and
genetically similar to animals than other organisms, this makes fungal diseases very difficult to treat.
Plant diseases caused by fungi include rusts, smuts, and leaf, root, and stem rots, and may cause
severe damage to crops. However, a number of fungi, in particular the yeasts, are important "model
organisms" for studying problems in genetics and molecular biology.
About fungi
Fungi are important organisms and so distinct from plants and animals that they have been allotted a
'kingdom' of their own in our classifications of life on earth.
Fungi v fungi
First, let’s be clear: fungi and Fungi mean different things. The lower case 'fungi' is a general word
that refers to organisms that all look and act the same, but are not all related. This group is artificial
and includes moulds, yeasts, mushrooms, slime moulds, and water moulds (like Phytophthora, the
cause of the Irish potato famine and Sudden Oak Death).
On the other hand, 'Fungi', with a capital 'F', refers to the evolutionary group that includes most of
the best known 'fungi': moulds, yeasts, and mushrooms, but not slime moulds or water moulds.
Because all of these organisms superficially resemble each other and all do similar things, they were
grouped together within the lower plants, including mosses, liverworts, and ferns, for a very long
time.
Fungi are not plants

Well, at least since 1969 when they were first officially recognized as a distinct group. And more
recently, using DNA sequences and comparisons of cell structure, we have learned that Fungi are in
fact more closely related to animals than they are to plants. Superficially, they remind us more of
plants than animals because they don’t move, but scratch the biological surface just a little and that’s
just about the only thing they have in common.
Hygrocybe conica
How do Fungi eat?

Unlike plants, which make their own food, Fungi are like miniature versions of our stomachs, turned
inside-out. Fungi 'eat' by releasing enzymes outside of their bodies that break down nutrients into
smaller pieces that they can then absorb. This feeding strategy means that Fungi always live in and
on their food.
How is a fungus built?

Fungi come in many different sizes and shapes. Some are single cells called yeasts, while most are
built from masses of tiny filaments. During reproduction, portions of these masses of filaments will
differentiate from each other to make complex structures that are sometimes called fruiting bodies.
These are best known from the mushrooms, like the iconic fly agaric (Amanita muscaria), but many
other types of fruiting bodies are made by Fungi.
Fungal sex
Reproduction happens by self-cloning or through sex with compatible partners. Mostly this is
accomplished by producing lots and lots of spores, which can disperse far and wide and, with luck,
find a mate. But fungi don’t have just two sexes (like male and female), instead they have what are
called 'mating types', and there can be as many as 20,000 different ones. Not only that but
sometimes the filaments that make up the bodies of two individuals will fuse and merge their DNA –
an extraordinary way of having sex that neither plants or animals can achieve.
Where does a fungus live?

Everywhere: Antarctica, the Amazon jungle, the Gobi desert, and even all over (and inside) you, just
to name a few locations.
Fungi are amazingly well adapted to just about any condition on Earth. But maybe that’s not so
surprising – they have had over one billion years to figure it out.
The importance of Fungi

Where to begin? Fungi are tremendously important to human society and the planet we live on. They
provide fundamental products including foods, medicines, and enzymes important to industry. They
are also the unsung heroes of nearly all terrestrial ecosystems, hidden from view but inseparable
from the processes that sustain life on the planet
Types of Fungi
The 100,000 identified species of organisms commonly classed together as fungi are customarily
divided into four phyla, or divisions: Zygomycota, Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, and
Deuteromycota
Zygomycota includes black bread mold and molds, such as those of the genus Glomus,that form
important symbiotic relationships with plants. Most are soil-living saprobes that feed on dead animal
or plant remains. Some are parasitic of plants or insects. They reproduce sexually and form tough
zygospores from the fusion of neighboring gametangia. There is no distinguishable male or female.
Ascomycota includes yeasts, the powdery mildews, the black and blue-green molds, edible types
such as the morel and the truffle, and species that cause such diseases of plants as Dutch elm
disease, chestnut blight, apple scab, and ergot. There are over 50,000 species, about 25,000 of
which occur only in lichens. In ascomycetes, the hyphae are subdivided by porous walls through
which the cytoplasm and the nuclei can pass. Their life cycle is a complex combination of sexual and
asexual reproduction.
Basidiomycota includes the gill fungi (most mushrooms), the pore fungi (e.g., the bracket fungi,
which grow shelflike on trees, and an edible type called tuckahoe), and the puffballs. It also includes
the fungi that cause smut and rustin plants. Like ascomycetes, the hyphae are subdivided by porous
walls. In basidiomycetes, two hyphae fuse to form a dikaryotic mycelium (a mycelium in which both
nuclei remain distinct). These mycelia differentiate into reproductive structures called basidia that
make up the basidiocarp (the body popularly known as the mushroom cap). The nuclei then fuse
and undergo meiosis, creating spores with one nucleus each. When these spores germinate, they
produce hyphae, and the process begins again.
Deuteromycota comprises a miscellaneous assortment of fungi that do not not fit neatly in other
divisions; they have in common an apparent lack of sexual reproductive features. Also called Fungi
Imperfecti, the group includes species that help create Roquefort and Camembert cheeses, that
cause diseases of plants and of animals (e.g., athlete's foot and ringworm), and that produce penicillin. A
number of the fungi classified as deuteromycetes have been found to be asexual stages of species in
other groups, and some classification schemes consider the deuteromycetes a class under Ascomycota.
Zygomycota
Zygomycota, or zygote fungi, is a phylum of fungi. Approximately 1050 species are known. They are
mostly terrestrial in habitat, living in soil or on decaying plant or animal material.
Ascomycota
Ascomycota is a division or phylum of the kingdom Fungi that, together with the Basidiomycota, form the
subkingdom Dikarya. Its members are commonly known as the sac fungi or ascomycetes
Basidiomycota
Basidiomycota is one of two large phyla that, together with the Ascomycota, constitute the subkingdom
Dikarya within the kingdom Fungi.
Deuteromycota
The division Deuteromycota is also called the Fungi Imperfecti or Imperfect Fungi referring to our
"imperfect" knowledge of their complete life cycles. The Deuteromycotaare characterized by
production of septate mycelium and/or yeasts, and a sexual life cycle that is either unknown or
absent.

Fungi

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Fungi

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Introduction to the Fungi

Fungi are not plants

How do Fungi eat?

How is a fungus built?

Where does a fungus live?

The importance of Fungi

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