PART 6 CHAPTER 5

Kingdom
fungi
- Introduction
- Classification of Kingdom Fungi
- Importance of Fungi
- Harmful Fungi
introduction
• Most fungi are multicellular eukaryotes.
• Only a few fungi are unicellular.
• The fungi make up a kingdom that includes:
– morels
– mushrooms
– rusts
• Yeasts are unicellular forms.
• Most distinguishes the fungi from other
organisms is their mode of nutrition.
• Fungi do not have chlorophyll, and thus
unable to photosynthesize.
• Fungi are heterotrophic by absorption.
• Fungal cells secrete digestive enzyme;
following breakdown of molecules, the
nutrients are absorbed.
• They may be saprobes, parasites, or mutualists:
– Most fungi are saprotrophic decomposers, breaking
down wastes or remains of plants and animals
– Some are parasitic, living off tissues
– Mutualistic relationships by forming mycorrhizae
with the roots of plants
• Example: green alga or cyanobacterium to form a
lichen
• The germinating spore absorbs food and
grows an elongated threads called a hypha
(plural, hyphae).
• Some hyphae are coenocytic (not divided into
individual compartment of cells), others are
divided by cross walls called septa.
• When a mass of hyphae appear, the body of
the fungus is now called a mycelium.
• Mycelium is to absorb food and to produce new
fungus plants.
• Fungal cells wall are made of chitin. The food
reserve is glycogen.
• Fungi produce by means of spores.
• When the environment become dry, they
survive by going into resting stage or
producing spores.
Structures of a multicellular fungus.
Fungal Life Cycles
Classification
of Kingdom
fungi
Phylogeny of fungi.
 Chytridiomycetes (Chytrids)
Phylum Chytridiomycota
• The most primitive group of fungi.
• Some are saprobes; other parasitize
protists, plants, or animals.
• Have cell walls made of chitin.
• Some form colonies with hyphae,
while the others as single
spherical cells.
• Having flagellated spores,
zoospores.
 Zygospore Fungi
(Phylum Zygomycota )
• Zygomycetes have aseptate hyphae, the
hyphae do not have cross wall.
• Most are decomposers, and others are
mycorrhyzal fungi associated with plant roots.
• Sexually reproduction by conjugation
producing zygospore.
• Nutrition: saprotrophic, some
parasitic forms.
• Habitat: terrestrial, widespread.
• Example: Rhizopus.
 Sac Fungi
(Phylum Ascomycota )
• They are so named because during part of the
life cycle, reproductive cells are held in a little
sac or ascus (plural, asci).
• Composed of septate hyphae. Only a few sac
fungi exist as unicellular yeasts.
• Asexual reproduction by conidia, sexual
reproduction by ascus containing ascospores.
• Nutrition: saprotrophic, parasitic.
• Habitat: terrestrial, widespread.
• Example: Saccharomyces, Penicillium.
The two nuclei of two cells pair
off and cohabit without fusing
 Club Fungi
(Phylum Basidiomycota)
• Have reproductive structures called basidia
(singular, basidium).
• Spores are formed on the outside of the parent
cell.
• Have septate hyphae and their cell walls
contain chitin.
• Reproduction: usually sexual, formation of
club-shaped basidia bearing basidiospores.
• Nutrition: saprotrophic, parasitic.
• Habitat: terrestrial, widespread.
• Example: Agaricus.
 Deuteromycetes
(Phylum Deuteromycota)
• Deuteromycetes, also known as imperfect
fungi because in most of them no sexual stage
has been observed.
• Should further study reveal a sexual stage,
these species will be reassigned to different
phylum.
lichens
• Symbiotic association of millions of
photosynthetic microorganisms held in mass of
fungal hyphae.
• The photosynthetic partners are typically
unicellular or filamentous green algae or
cyanobacteria.
Anatomy of an ascomycete lichen
(colorized SEM)
• The fungus usually gives a lichen its overall
shape and structure.
• The algae or cyanobacteria generally occupy
an inner layer below the lichen surface.
• The algae provide carbon compounds; the
cyanobacteria also fix nitrogen.
• The fungi provide their photosynthetic
partners with a suitable environment for
growth.
Variation in lichen growth forms.
• Many lichens reproduce sexually by
forming ascocarps or basidiocarps.
• Lichens algae reproduce independently
of the fungus by asexual cell division.
• Or, by the formation of soredia
– Small clusters of hyphae with
embedded algae
 Importance of Lichens
• Important pioneers on newly cleared rock and
soil surfaces.
– the first to colonize previously disrupted or
damaged ecosystems.
• Break down the surface by physically penetrating
and chemically attacking.
• Nitrogen-fixing lichens also add organic nitrogen
to some ecosystems.
• Biological indicators for air pollution.
– Species that can be used to monitor the health of an
environment or ecosystem
Importance
of fungi
 As Decomposers
• Reduce complex polysaccharide and proteins
into simple organic compounds.
• Fungi can compose:
– Textiles,
– Leather,
– Food,
– Wood,
– Paint, and even
– plastic materials.
 As Symbionts

• Some types of fungi are

adapted to mutualistic
relationship with other
organism.
• Fungi may form an
association with a green
algae or cyanobacterium
to form lichens.
 As Food, and Pharmaceuticals
• Fungi are consumed as food by a variety of
animals, including humans.
• Ascomycetes are use routinely in food
production; bread, wine, beer.
• The medically important antibiotic penicillin is
also produced by P. chrysogenum.
• Aspergillus is used in industry for making citric
acid and soy source from soybean.
Harmful
fungi
 Pathogens
• The general term for fungal infection is
mycosis.
• Many skin diseases are caused by fungi,
including ringworm.
• Most commonly, they grow on the feet,
causing the intense itching and blister
known as athlete’s foot.
• They can seriously damage crops.
– Smuts damage crops such as corn,
– Rusts damage cereal crops such as wheat.
• Coccidioidomycosis is a systemic mycosis that
produces tuberculosis-like symptoms in the
lungs.
• Certain yeasts, such as Candida species cause
skin disease and respiratory troubles in human
beings.
– Candida albicans causes a throats and mouth
disease
Thank
you