LAB 4: SURVEY OF

KINGDOM FUNGI
BIO 109 HONORS
Dr. Thomas Butler
INTRODUCTION
1.5 million estimate d species
Fossil record: 450-500 million years old
Cell walls are chitinous
Survival strategies
Resist severe desiccation and harsh environmental conditions
Produce complex organic compounds that inhibit bacterial wall
formation
Produce hallucinogens or toxins to deter ingestion
Reproduction
Lack an embryonic stage
Spores by mitosis or zygotic meiosis
Most have a sexual reproductive stage forming conjugates
(exception: deuteromycotes)
Yeasts reproduce by budding

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Typical Fungal Reproductive
Cycle 3
Structure and Growth
Hyphae: slender tubes from spores
May be incompletely divided by walls (septae) and contain many
nuclei
Mycelium: feeding and growing form of all hyphae
Great surface area for absorption

Exception: single celled fungi (yeasts)

Conidiophores: hyphae bearing conidium(a)

Conidia: spores produced asexually
Gametangia: sexual reproductive structures
Conjugation consists of hyphal and nuclear fusion (karyogamy)
Nuclear fusion delayed: cells are dikaryotic

Diploid state is transient: meiosis restores the haploid state

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Nutrition by absorption
Secrete powerful enzymes
Symbiotic relationships
Mycorrhizae found on roots
Lichens
Many cause disease in animals and plants
Parasitic on insects
Importance to man
Many are pathogenic and can be fatal
Add flavor, color, protein and preservatives to food
Pickles, sauerkraut, cheeses, beer, soy sauce by fermentation

Pharmaceutical
Penicillin, cephalosporins
Fermentation to produce cortisone, prednisone

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Phylum Zygomycota
Approximately 1100 terrestrial species
Lack septae (except in between reproductive
structures)
Two methods of reproduction
Spores by mitosis
Sexual zygosporangia
Conjugation of specialized hyphae of complimentary mating
types
Saprophytic heterotrophs
Examples
Rhizopus stolonifer (black bread mold)
Glomus (mycorrhizal)

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Zygospores of Rhizopus
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Phylum Ascomycota
30,000 known species
Includes yeasts, blue-green molds, morels, truffles,
former deuteromycotes (Fungi Imperfecti), and lichens
Deuteromycotes lack a sexual reproductive form
Aspergillus sp., Penicillium sp. Candida sp.

Lichens: symbionts of fungi and photosynthesizers (green

algae or cyanobacteria
Ascus(i): microscopic reproductive structure containing
spores: sac fungi
Hyphae and mycelium form a cottony mass
Nutrition by absorption or photosynthetic symbiosis
Enzymes digest cellulose, lignin, collagen

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Schematic of Typical Ascomycote
Reproduction
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Examples:
Tuber melanosporum: truffles
Morchella esculenta: morels
Caliceps: ergot fungus
Yeasts (Saccharomyces cervesiae:): ferment sugars
Penicllium: produces penicillin
Candida albicans: infects mucous membranes
Pneumocystis carinii: pneumonia in immunosuppressed
Aspergillus oryzae: used with yeast to produce soy
sauce, can also cause sinus/lung disease (aspergillosis)
Dermatophytes: a group of several imperfect fungi that
causes ringworm, jock itch, athletes foot

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Yeast

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Penicillium

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Lichens
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 Tinea corporis
Dermatophyte AKA: Ringworm

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Candida throat infection
AKA: Thrush
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Phylum Basidiomycota
Club fungi because of shape
22,500 known species
Includes smuts, rusts, jelly fungi, puffballs,
stinkhorns, and mushrooms
Basidioma (basidiocarp): reproductive
structure
The mushroom is the spore producing body
Basidium: microscopic reproductive structure
containing four haploid spores
Almost all are heterotrophs, some
symbiotrophs 16
Fruiting Body

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Examples:
Ustilago maydis: corn smut
Shelf fungi: important decomposers of wood
Hymenomycetes: sub class containing most
edible and poisonous mushrooms

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