FUNGUS

Chapter 2 Lesson 4

Characteristics

Heterotrophs Secrete digestive juices into food supply,

digest the food, and then absorb Feed on dead organisms, or act as parasites

feeding off live organisms Cell Structure

Eukaryotic Hyphae – branching, threadlike tubes that make up the body of the organism Cell walls – made of chitin

Characteristics continued…

Reproduction Asexually

Produce spores in fruiting bodies (ex. Mushroom)

Budding occurs when a small yeast cell grows from the body of the parent cell and then breaks away

Sexual Hyphae of two fungi grow together &

exchange genetic information

Fungi’s Role in Nature Decomposers & Recyclers

Break down chemicals in dead organisms and return those nutrients to the soil

Food Yeast helps us make bread, mushrooms, alcohol

Disease Fighting Penicillin – the first, but not only, antibiotic gleaned

from fungi Disease Causing

Common parasites causing disease in plants/crops Athletes foot Ringworm

Fungi & Nature continued…

Fungi-Plant Can help plants grow when their hyphae

grow on or in the plant root The hyphae absorb water & nutrients for

the plant and the fungi receives food from the plant (symbiosis)

Lichens Combination of algae & fungi living

together to the benefit of both organisms