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Fungi

Ch 29
 Chapter 29
Fungi
Key Concepts:
• Evolution and Distinctive Features of Fungi
• Fungal Asexual and Sexual Reproduction
• Diversity of Fungi
• Fungal Ecology and Biotechnology

© McGraw-Hill Education 2
 Evolution and
Distinctive Features of Fungi
Eukaryote supergroup Opisthokonta
• Includes certain protists, Kingdom Animalia, and Kingdom
Fungi
Fungi originated in aquatic habitats

1.5 Million species

• Arose from protists related to Nuclearia, an amoeba that feeds by engulfing cells

Cryptomycota - earliest-diverging modern fungi

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 Evolutionary relationship of Fungi Figure 29.1

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 Unique Cell Wall Chemistry
Cells enclosed by tough cell walls composed of
chitin
• Prevents phagocytosis

• Enables resistance of high osmotic pressure

resulting from osmotrophy

Some aquatic species have flagellated

reproductive cells

© McGraw-Hill Education 5
 Fungi Are Closely Related to Animals
Heterotrophic – cannot produce their own food
• Fungi feed on diverse substrates
Use absorptive nutrition – secrete enzymes
and absorb organic molecules
Store surplus food as glycogen

© McGraw-Hill Education 6
 A Unique Body Form
Most have a mycelium composed of hyphae
• Hyphae may be aseptate or septate
• Mycelium is diffuse and inconspicuous

Fruiting bodies – visible reproductive

structures
• For example, mushrooms
• Arise following a sexual mating of hyphae
• Produce spores by meiosis

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 Fungal Morphology 29.2

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 Types of Fungal Hyphae Figure 29.3

a) Aseptate hypha

b) Septate hypha

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 Aseptate versus Septate Hyphae
Aseptate hyphae
• Early-diverging fungi
• Not partitioned into smaller cells
• Multinucleate
• Nuclei divide without cytokinesis
• Coenocytic
Septate hyphae
• Later-diverging fungi
• Septa – Cross walls dividing cells of mycelium
• Nuclear division followed by septum formation
© McGraw-Hill Education 10
 Distinctive Growth Processes
Mycelia can grow quickly when food is plentiful
• Hyphae extend tips through substrate

• Narrow dimensions/extensive branching provide high

surface area for absorption

Importance of osmosis and cytoplasmic streaming

• Entry of water provides force for tip extension

• Enzymes and cell wall materials are carried to tip by

vesicles

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 Hyphal tip growth and absorptive nutrition Figure 29.4

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 Fungal Shape Shifting Figure 29.5

a) Mycelium growing in liquid b) Mycelium growing on flat,

medium solid medium

Natural mycelium may be irregular in shape

• Spherical in liquid culture
• Two-dimensional on agar
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© McGraw-Hill Education a: ©Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Southern Crop Protection and Food Research Centre, London ON; b: Source: CDC 13
 PBLQ 2
Fungal Asexual and
Sexual Reproduction

Many fungi reproduce by microscopic spores

that grow into a new organism
• May be asexual clones
• Allow well-adapted fungi to disperse to similar,
favorable places
• Or from sexual reproduction with new allele
combinations
• May allow colonization of new types of habitats

© McGraw-Hill Education 14
 PBLQ 2

Asexual Reproduction

Asexual reproduction is ideal for rapid spread

• No need to find a mate
• No fruiting body
• No meiosis
Many fungi produce conidia
• Asexual spores grown at the tips of hyphae
Unicellular yeasts reproduce by budding

© McGraw-Hill Education 15
 Asexual reproductive cells of Fungi Figure 29.6
PBLQ 2

© McGraw-Hill Education ©Dennis Kunkel Microscopy, Inc./Phototake 16

 Budding Yeast Figure 29.7 PBLQ 2

© McGraw-Hill Education ©Medical-on-Line/Alamy Stock Photo 17

 PBLQ 2
Asexual Fungi

Often responsible for food spoilage, allergies, and

disease
Medically important fungi that reproduce primarily
by asexual means include
• Athlete’s foot fungus (Epidermophyton floccosum)
• Infectious yeast (Candida albicans)

© McGraw-Hill Education 18
 PBLQ 2

Sexual Reproduction
Involves union of gametes, zygote formation, and
meiosis
The fungal life cycle is typically haploid-dominant
• Some early-diverging species exhibit alternation of
generations

Gametes of terrestrial fungi are cells from hyphal

branches
• Mating types differ biochemically
• Branches of compatible mating types are attracted by
secreted peptides and fuse
© McGraw-Hill Education 19
 Fruiting Bodies
A mated mycelium may produce a fleshy fruiting
body under certain conditions
• For example, mushroom
Emerge from substrate and produce haploid
spores
• Spores have a tough chitin wall for protection against
drying and other stresses
• Dispersed by wind, rain, or animals
• If dispersed to a suitable habitat, spores grow into
haploid mycelia

© McGraw-Hill Education 20
Fruiting body adaptations that foster spore dispersal Figure 29.8

• Structure of fruiting bodies varies in ways that reflect

adaptations for spore dispersal

a) Fruiting bodies adapted for b) Fruiting body adapted for dispersal

dispersal of spores by wind of spores by insects

© McGraw-Hill Education a: ©Bob Gibbons/ardea.com; b: ©RF Company/Alamy Stock Photo. 21

 Types of Edible Fungi Figure 29.9
• Some fruiting bodies are edible (for example, truffles,
morels) and may be cultivated for human consumption

© McGraw-Hill Education ©Rob Casey/Alamy Stock Photo 22

 Many Fruiting Bodies Produce Substances to
Deter Consumption
Toxins (for example, aflatoxins)
• Can cause liver cancer or liver failure

Hallucinogenic/psychoactive substances

Amanita muscaria

© McGraw-Hill Education ©MyLoupe/UIG CALC/Universal Images Group/Getty Images 23

 Ergot or rye Figure 29.11

The fungus Claviceps purpurea infects

Rhye and other grasses, producing
hard masess of mycelia known as
ergots in place of grains

© McGraw-Hill Education ©imageBROKER/Superstock 24

 Diversity of Fungi

• Cryptomycota
• Chytridomycota
• Blastocladiomycota
• Mucoromycota
• Ascomycota
• Basidiomycota

© McGraw-Hill Education 25
 Distinguishing Features of Later-Diverging Fungal Phyla Table 29.1

Phylum Habitat Ecological role Reproduction Examples cited in this

chapter
Mucoromycota Terrestrial Form mutually Distinctive multinucleate The genus Glomus, the
beneficial associations asexual spores or sexual genus Rhizopus
with plants zygospores
Ascomycota Mostly Decomposers; Asexual conidia; Aleuria aurantia, Venturia
terrestrial pathogens; many form nonflagellate sexual spores inaequalis, Saccharomyces
lichens; some are plant (ascospores) in sacs (asci) cerevisiae, Tuber
symbionts on fruiting bodies melanosporum
(ascocarps)
Basidiomycota Terrestrial Decomposers; many Several types of asexual Coprinus
are plant symbionts; spores; nonflagellate disseminatus,Rhizoctonia
less commonly form sexual spores solani, Armillaria mellea,
lichens (basidiospores) on club- Puccinia graminis, Ustilago
shaped basidia on fruiting maydis, Phanerochaete
chrysosporium, Laccaria
bodies (basidiocarps) bicolor, Amanita muscaria,
Phallus impudicus,
Lycoperdon perlatum
 Cryptomycota
Single-celled fungi found in water and soil
Includes microsporidia
• For example, Nosema ceranae
• Parasitizes animals and causes disease

© McGraw-Hill Education 27
 Chytrids
Live in water or moist soil
Have a rigid chitin cell wall and flagellated reproductive cells
Some are single, spherical cells that may produce hyphae
Most are decomposers, but some are parasites or pathogens
• For example, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis
• associated with declining frog populations

© McGraw-Hill Education ©Photographs by H. Canter-Lund reproduced with permission of the copyright holder Freshwater Biological Association and J.W.G.Lund. 28
 Other Early-diverging Fungi Produce Distinctive
Zygospores

Mycelium composed of aseptate hyphae and distinctive

reproductive structures
For example, black bread mold Rhizopus stolonifer
• Asexual spores produced in dark-pigmented sporangia that
form at hyphal tips
• Sexual reproduction uses distinctive zygospore
• Gametangia of compatible mating types fuse, producing a
zygosporangium
• A multinucleate zygospore matures in each zygosporangium
• Haploid nuclei fuse in pairs, producing diploid nuclei
• Later, these undergo meiosis to produce haploid spores

© McGraw-Hill Education 29
 Asexual reproduction of black bread mold
Figure 29.14
Mucoromycota
Rhizopus stolonifer

Hyphae produce
1. sporangia that contain
asexual spores.

The hyphae use bread as food to Sporangia open, and spores disperse
3. 2. in air. If spores land in a suitable
produce more hyphae and new
sporangia. place such as bread, they germinate
into hyphae.

a)Asexual reproduction

© McGraw-Hill Education (top right): ©Lee W. Wilcox 30

 Sexual reproduction of black bread mold
Figure 29.14

Rhizopus stolonifer Mucoromycota

If hyphae of compatible mating The resulting cell develops

2. strains are present, gametangia 3. into a multinudeate
fuse. heterokaryotic
zygosporangium.

1. When food supplies

run low, hyphae Zygosporangial nuclei
produce multinucleate 4. fuse in pairs to produce
gametangia. many diploid nuclei and
a dark, thick-walled
zygospore develops
within the sporangium.

Spores of diverse genetic types When the environment is

6. are released and dispersed in air. 5. suitable meiosis occurs within
If they land on a suitable site, the zygospore, producing many
they germinate, each producing haploid spores.
an aseptate hypha.

b)Sexual reproduction
© McGraw-Hill Education (top right): ©Lee W. Wilcox 31
 Zygospores in zygosporangia Figure 29.15

© McGraw-Hill Education ©Ed Reschke/Getty Images 32

 Mucoromycota
Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi
Usually occur in mutually beneficial partnerships
with plant roots (mycorrhizae)
• Form structures called arbuscules within root cells

Reproduce only asexually via large spores

Many vascular plants rely on AM fungi for
acquisition of water and nutrients
• Colonization of land by early plants may have depended
on help from fungal associations

© McGraw-Hill Education 33
 The genus Glomus, an example of Mucoromycota
Figure 29.16

© McGraw-Hill Education ©Yolande Dalpé, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada 34

 Ascomycota
Hyphae subdivided by septa with simple pores
Like basidiomycetes, produce a dikaryotic mycelium
• Cells contain two nuclei of different genetic types
• In most sexual organisms plasmogamy (fusion of gametes’
cytoplasm) is followed by karyogamy (fusion of gametes’
nuclei)
• However, in these fungi, nuclei may remain separate for
some time following plasmogamy
• Dikaryotic mycelia are functionally diploid
• Eventually, dikaryotic mycelia produce fruiting bodies, the
next stage of reproduction

© McGraw-Hill Education 35
 Types of Septic Spores Figure 29.17

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© McGraw-Hill Education a: Courtesy of William Whittingham, and Linda Graham; b: ©Charles Mims 36
 Ascomycetes Produce Saclike Asci
Unique sporangia called asci
• Produce sexual spores called ascospores
• Asci produced on fruiting bodies called ascocarps

© McGraw-Hill Education 37
 Asexual Reproduction of Ascomycete fungi Figure 29.18

3.

Hyphae produce asexual conidia.

Conidia grow into new hyphae that are
genetically identical to parents.

a)Asexual reproduction

© McGraw-Hill Education b (middle inset): ©Ed Reschke/Getty Images 38

 Sexual Reproduction of Ascomycete fungi Figure 29.18

The dikaryotic mycelium produces a fruiting body

3. known as an ascocarp. At the surface of the
ascocarp, hyphae produce sac-shaped asci, each
The mated cell produces a containing 2 haploid nuclei of distinct genotype.
2.
dikaryotic mycelium by
mitotic division of both types
Compatible hyphae of nuclei.
1.
mate by
plasmogamy of
hyphal branches,
combining nuclei of 4. The 2 nuclei fuse to
2 genetic types. form a diploid zygote
nucleus in the process
known as karyogamy.

7.
Ascospores grow by
mitosis into hyphae
having 1 haploid nucleus
per cell.
The diploid nucleus undergoes
When ascospores 5. meiosis, then each of the 4
6.
are mature, they haploid daughter nuclei divide
are explosively again by mitosis. The
released from asci cytoplasm around each
into the air. nucleus secretes a spore wall,
resulting in 8 ascospores.

b) Sexual reproduction of the ascomycete Aleuria aurantia

© McGraw-Hill Education b (middle inset): ©Ed Reschke/Getty Images 39

 Examples of Ascomycetes
Occur in terrestrial and aquatic habitats
Decomposers and plant pathogens
• Powdery mildews, chestnut blight, Dutch elm disease
• Cup fungi
• Yeasts
• Truffles and morels
• Often fungal component of lichens

Black tuffle

© McGraw-Hill Education ©Nacivet/Getty Images 40

 Basidiomycota
Hyphae subdivided by septa with complex pores
Named for basidia, the club-shaped cells of fruiting
bodies that produce sexual basidiospores
• Generally located on underside of basidiocarps

Clamp connections help distribute nuclei during cell

division
Important decomposers and mycorrhizal partners
Produce mushrooms, puffballs, stinkhorns, shelf fungi,
rusts, smuts, and fairy rings

© McGraw-Hill Education 41
 Sexual life cycle of basidiomycete Figure 29.20
3. Hyphal branches known as clamp connections bridge recently divided cells,
ensuring that one of each nuclear type is regularly distributed to each
daughter cell.
Under
2. The dikaryotic 4. appropriat
cell divides by e
mitosis to conditions,
produce a
dikaryotic
dikaryotic
mycelium, mycelium
which can be may form
very long-lived. a fruiting
1. Compatible hyphae body, or
mate by plasmogamy basidiocar
of hyphal branches, p.
combining nuclei of 2
genetic types.

8. Basidiospores grow
into mycelia, the
cells of which each
possess 1 haploid
nucleus.

5. Dikaryotic basidia occur at

6. Nuclei in basidia the surfaces of gills (or pores
7. Basidia undergo meiosis to produce
fuse to form of some mushrooms).
4 haploid nuclei, which are diploid nuclei.
incorporated into basidiospores
that are dispersed.

© McGraw-Hill Education (left): ©Biophoto Associates/Science Source; (right): ©Dr. Jeremy Burgess/Science Source 42
 Fruiting bodies of Basidiomycetes Figure 29.21

a) Corn smut b) Shelf fungi

© McGraw-Hill Education ©Scott Camazine/Alamy Stock Photo ©Mark Turner/Botanica/Getty Imagess 43

 Fungal Ecology and
Biotechnology

Fungal decomposers are essential

components of the Earth’s ecosystems
• Break down organic debris such as dead
organisms and waste
• Only certain fungi and bacteria can break down
cellulose and lignin

• Release CO2 into the air and other minerals to soil

and water

© McGraw-Hill Education 44
 Predatory Fungi
• Some fungi use special hyphae to trap tiny soil
animals (for example, nematodes, insects)

Arthrobotrys anchonia

© McGraw-Hill Education ©Science Source 45

 Fungal Plant Pathogens
5000 species
• Cause serious crop diseases
• Many produce haustoria, specialized balloon-shaped
cells that aid in absorption

Control achieved through a variety of

methods
• Development of fungicides and resistant crop varieties
• Preventing importation of infected material

© McGraw-Hill Education 46
 Fungal haustoria Figure 29.23

Fungus that parasitize plants often produce specilaized balloon-shaped cells

called haustoria that absorb organic food from plant cells

© McGraw-Hill Education ©Dr. Eric Kemen and Dr. Kurt W. Mendgen 47

 Wheat rust Figure 29.24

Fungus grows within tissues of wheat plants, uisng plant nutrients to produce
rusty streaks of red spores that erupt at stem and leaf to disburse.

Puccinia graminis

© McGraw-Hill Education (left): ©Nigel Cattlin/Science Source; (right): ©Herve Conge/ISM/Phototake 48

 Fungal Animal Pathogens
White nose syndrome in bats
• Caused by Geomyces destructans
Several human diseases
• Dermatophytes – athlete’s foot, ringworm
• Pneomocystis carinii and Cryptococcus
neoformans - often infect those with AIDS

© McGraw-Hill Education 49
 Dimorphic Fungi
Live as spore-producing hyphae in soil
Transform into pathogenic yeasts when mammals
inhale wind-dispersed spores
• Triggered by host body temperature
Cause diseases of the lungs that may spread
• Blastomycosis, coccidiomycosis, histoplasmosis

© McGraw-Hill Education Courtesy Bruce Klein. Reprinted with permission 50

 Biotechnology Applications
Fungi convert inexpensive organic compounds into citric acid,
glycerol, and antibiotics
Used to break down plant materials for biofuel
Important in food production
• Distinctive flavor of blue cheese
• Secrete enzymes used in processing soybeans for tempeh and other
products
• Saccharomyces cerevisiae and other yeasts used in bread, beer and
wine production

S. cerevisiae used as model organism for biological studies

• Short life cycle
• Easy and safe to maintain in laboratory
• Genomes are similar to those of animals

© McGraw-Hill Education 51