Fungus Kingdom  Consumers and decomposers  Can’t make own food  Break down waste/ dead materials for food  return to soil

Traits  Cell wall  More than 1 nucleus  Size: 1 celled yeast  large, multicellular mushrooms  Hyphae: threadlike structures that make up the bodies of most fungi

Hyphae  Contain cytoplasm divide by cross walls  Grow, branch, cover, digest food source fungus is growing on  Can reproduce from pieces of hyphae –Carried by wind or water

Spores  Single cell used for reproduction  Classified by how they form spores  Microscopic  Mushroom/puffballs release clouds of spores (Figure 5-10c pg. 102)

 Great threat = fungal diseases  $$ protect crops w/ fungicides, develop new fungicides and develop new strains of crops

Decomposers  Fungi grow on once-living things and decompose it, use it for food  Help break down dead materials and return it to soil  Digest food outside body  Hyphae release chemicals into material surrounding them

Cont.  Chemicals break down food into small molecules  Hyphae absorb digested food

 Fungus secretes enzymes into its food  Enzymes breakdown large food molecules into small molecules to be absorbed by hyphae  After food is absorbed it travels to parts of the fungus

Saprophyte  Organism that uses dead material for food

Parasite  Feed on living things  Most grow on plants  Some parasites are fungi on animals

 Sporangium fungi: fungi that produce spores in sporangia  Sporangia: structures, found on the tips of hyphae, that make spores  Club Fungi: fungi w/ club shaped parts that produce spores

Mushroom Parts  Stipe: stemlike part  Cap: top of mushroom, like umbrella  Gills: underside of cap; like ribs of umbrella  Club-shaped part: found on underside of gills, very small in size

Sac Fungi  Produce spores in saclike structures  Budding: reproduction when a small part of the parent grows into a new organism  Bud grows out of parent  Offspring is identical to parent

Sac Fungi  Useful to humans  Ex. Yeast- used for making bread and alcohol  Bad sac = Dutch elm disease

Helpful Fungi  Yeast (alcohol, bread)  Used to make food (mushrooms), soy sauce, blue/Roquefort cheese, penicillin/other antibiotics  Break down materials/ get rid of waste  Enrich soil

Harmful Fungi  Causes food to spoil  Plant diseases = rusts, smuts, mildew, Dutch elm disease  Human diseases = athlete’s foot, ringworm, thrush, lung infections  Destroy leather, fabrics, plastics

 Mutualism: living arrangement in which the things living together benfit  Lichen: fungus and organism w/ chlorophyll that live together  Looks like single organism, but is not  Ex. British soldier and reindeer moss

Roles  Chlorophyll  Provides food for fungus  Fungus  Provides support and holds water/ minerals for the other organism

Lichens  Unusual living arrangement =living where few others can’t  Sensitive to environment changes

Lichens cont.  Not easily separated; tangled  Reproduce by fragmentation: small pieces break off and blow away  Live on bare rocks, trees, Arctic ice  Provide food for some animals  Release acids, break down rock. Broken rock + dead lichens = soil