Notes from the microbiology lecture 'fungi diversity' covering all different types of fungi, their growth and reproduction, and touching on pathogenic species such as chytrid fungi, Aspergillus and yeast infections
- Fungi are heterotrophic, chemoorganotrophs – they do not have chlorophyll. Instead, they absorb
nutrients from living or dead organisms, obtaining carbon from organic compounds.
- Like plants, fungal cells have cell walls, and chitin, which is sugar derivative structurally similar to
cellulose.
- There are three main physiological groups of fungi – molds, mushrooms/toadstools and yeasts.
- As aerobic organisms, fungi require oxygen and water for growth, as well as a source of organic
carbon.
- Fungi are a natural source of the antibiotic drugs Penicillins – Penicillin G (which is injected) and
oral penicillin.
Types of fungi
- Wood rotting fungi occur as two types – brown rot, which specifically attacks cellulose, and white
rot, which decomposes both lignin and cellulose. The latter is particularly important in the natural
decomposition of trees.
- Mycorrhizae are a type of symbiotic fungi which have a special partnership with plant roots. In this
symbiosis, the plants obtain phosphate, water and minerals from the soil, and the fungus. There
are two types of mycorrhizae – ectomycorrhiza, which occur between basidiomycetes and woody
plants, and endomycorrhiza, whereby the hyphae of glomeromycetes (a group of all symbiotic
fungi) actually enter the plant cell.
- Lichens are the symbiotic product of algae and fungus. Lichen acid dissolves substrates such as
rock, and the hyphae of the fungus grow into the substrate, making lichens hard to detach.
- Chytrids are found in aquatic environments and comprise around 1000 species. They are unicellular
and do not form a mycelium. They have motile zoospores, and many are parasitic of microalgae
such as Asterionella. The chytrid Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis and some related species are
responsible for the infection known as Chytridiomycosis in frogs and other amphibians; these fungi
rely on keratin in the skin of adult amphibians, and encyst in the tissues, forming zoospores.
However, in order to survive they require a constant temperature of approximately 23°C.
Characteristics of fungi
- Some forms are unicellular (such as yeasts) and others are multicellular, forming long thread or
tube liked structures called hyphae.
- Hyphae have a variety of purposes, including anchoring the fungus to a substrate, holding spores,
secreting enzymes, and absorbing food by secreting hyalolytic enzymes.
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