Fungi

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What do fungi “eat?”

• Some fungi are decomposers.• They break down complex molecules

into simple ones.Examples:• common bread mold (eats carbs in bread)• shelf fungi on logs (eats carbs in cell wall of

wood)• white button mushrooms in store (eats

sugars and cellulose in dung)Downloded from

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What do fungi “eat?”

• Some fungi are symbiotic fungi.• They receive their food energy directly

from a plant or algal partner Examples:• mycorrhizal fungi (live on plant roots)• lichens (contain algae)

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What else do fungi “eat?”

• Predatory fungi, catch and digest other organisms (like nematodes)

But still absorptive nutrition! Just have to catch it first…Downloded from www.pharmacy123.blogfa.com

Some are parasitesAthlete’s foot

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Ringworm

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How do fungi eat?

• Heterotrophs (cannot make their own food like plants)

• Secrete enzymes outside of their bodies, “digest” the food outside of their cells and then absorb the molecules into their cells.

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• Lichens are a combination fungus and alga.

• Commensal relationship

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Lichens

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What does a fungus body look like?

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Fungi are made of hyphae (cells joined in thread-like strands)

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Mushrooms are for sexual reproduction (~flowers)

Mycelium = body of the fungus

Hyphae = the “bricks” from which the mushroom is builtDownloded from www.pharmacy123.blogfa.com

Example of a “humungous fungus”

• Armillaria bulbosa – a mushroom producing wood decomposer

• Covers at least 38 acres in a forest in Michigan

• Estimated to weigh 100 tons (size of a blue whale)

• Estimated to be at least 1500 yrs old

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Why should you care about fungi?

A few reasons:• They make foods we like to eat• Mycorrhizae are responsible for plant life on land

and high productivity rates• They decompose wood and organic matter• Penicillin and other medicines

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Examples of foods made possible by fungi

Yeast• Beer and Wine • BreadMushrooms• White button,

crimini,portabella• Truffles, chanterellesMycoprotein(food additive like tofu)

Cheese •Rennin, •blue cheeseSoy sauceTempehCitric acid (soft drinks)

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Mycorrhizae• “myco” = fungus and “rhiza” = root• Symbiotic association between

plant roots and fungi• Several different types of association

(defined by structure of fungus:plant interface)

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Mycorrhizal benefitsFungi increase the water and nutrients available to their plant partners leading to:•Greater plant productivity

Left: No mycorrhizal fungiRight: With mycorrhizal fungi

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Fungi are important decomposers!Fungi decompose cellulose to glucose and play a major role in the global carbon cycle.

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Fungi make antibiotics - Penicillium

WWI, bacterial infections killed more soldiers than bullets.

1928 Dr. Andrew Fleming working at St. Mary’s Hospital in London noticed that mold growing on staph bacterial culture plates had killed the pathogen

zone of dead bacteria

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Why do fungi make antibiotics?

Fungi produce antibiotics for the same reason we

need them: to fight off bacterial infections

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