1. FUNGI

2. YOU MUST KNOW… THE CHARACTERISTICS OF FUNGI
IMPORTANT ECOLOGICAL ROLES OF FUNGI IN MYCORRHIZAL ASSOCIATIONS, AND AS DECOMPOSERS AND PARASITIC PLANT PATHOGENS

3. WHAT IS MYCORRHIZAL?
A symbiotic (generally mutualistic, but occasionally weakly pathogenic) association between a fungus and the roots of a vascular plant.

4. CONCEPT 31.1
FUNGI ARE HETEROTROPHS THAT FEED BY ABSORPTION

5. EUKARYOTES
MULTICELLULAR HETEROTROPHS THAT OBTAIN NUTRIENTS BY ABSORPTION
SECRETE HYDROLYTIC ENZYMES, DIGEST FOOD OUTSIDE THEIR BODIES, AND ABSORB THE SMALL MOLECULES

6. CELL WALLS MADE OF CHITIN
BODIES ARE COMPOSED OF FILAMENTS CALLED HYPHAE
THAT ARE ENTWINED TO
FORM THE MYCELIUM
HYPHAE ARE DIVIDED INTO CELLS BY SEPTA
REPRODUCE BY SPORES
NUTRITION MODES INCLUDE DECOMPOSERS, PARASITES, AND MUTUALISTS

8. CONCEPT 31.4
FUNGI HAVE RADIATED INTO A DIVERSE SET OF LINEAGES

9. FUNGI – 5 PHYLA
ASCOMYCOTA (SAC FUNGI) – PRODUCE SEXUAL SPORES IN SAC-LIKE STRUCTURES CALLED ASCI – INCLUDE YEASTS AND SORDARIA
BASIDIOMYCOTA (CLUB FUNGI) – INCLUDE MUSHROOMS- IMPORTANT DECOMPOSERS
DUETEROMYCOTES – ASEXUAL, QUICK GROWING FUNGUS (MOLDS)
MYCOPHYCOTA
ZYGOMYCOTA (ZYGOTE FUNGI) – TERRESTRIAL – PARASITES, COMMENSAL SYMBIONTS

10. EXAMPLES
Ascomycota – Yeasts, powdery mildews, blue-green molds, morels, truffles
Basidiomycota – Mushrooms, smuts, rusts, jelly fungi, puffballs, stinkhorns
Deuteromycota – Imperfect Fungi (parasites that cause diseases of plants and animals)
Mycophycota - Lichen
Zygomycota – Bread mold

11. CONCEPT 31.5
FUNGI PLAY KEY ROLES IN NUTRIENT CYCLING, ECOLOGICAL INTERACTIONS, AND HUMAN WELFARE

12. IMPORTANT DECOMPOSERS OF ORGANIC MATERIAL INCLUDING CELLULOSE AND LIGNIN
MYCORRHIZAL FUNGI ARE ASSOCIATED WITH PLANT ROOTS AND IMPROVES THE DELIVERY OF MINERALS TO THE PLANT (MUTUALISM)
LICHENS – SYMBIOTIC ASSOCIATIONS OF PHOTOSYNTHETIC MICROORGANISMS (ALGAE) EMBEDDED IN A NETWORK OF FUNGAL HYPHAE
30% OF FUNGI ARE PARASITES