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9-1 Characteristics of Fungi
 Fungi
are organisms that can range in
size from unicellular (like yeast) to very
large multicellular organisms that can be
larger than a football field!
 Fungi can range in shape, from things
that look like cotton to large round balls
that look like volleyballs
 Even
though they look so different, fungi
are the same in the way they reproduce,
structures, and how they get their food
 Fungi
are heterotrophs. They get their
food by growing on a food source
 Fungi
release chemicals that digest the
substance that they are growing on and
then absorb the digested food
 ANT VIDEO
 Others
have a symbiotic relationship with
another organism
 Remember that symbiosis – is a
relationship between two kinds of
organisms in which at least one of the
organisms benefit
 Many
fungi are decomposers and feed
off dead organisms. They break down
once living things and return all of the
things that made up that organism back
to the earth
 Lichen
is an organism that is part fungus
and part algae (protist)
• Can live on rocks and break them down into soil
 Hyphae
- Threadlike tubes that make up
multicellular fungi
 These hyphae branch and weave
together to make the different shapes of
the different fungi
 The hyphae are unique from most cells
because they have many nuclei in each
one
 Most
fungi reproduce by spores
 Spore – Is a tiny reproductive
cell that is enclosed in a
protective cell wall
 Since spores are so light most
are carried by the wind and
grow where they land if they
conditions are right, but most
never find the right conditions
to grow
 The structure of the fungi that
produces the spores is called
the fruiting body
 VIDEO