Download Day 108 (1)

Day 108: Jennifer H. Fungi (Chapter 31). (We’ll circle back to plants at the end of the year.) This
should be super quick. Your students need to be aware of a few things things. One fungi are the
workhorse decomposers in terrestrial ecosystems. Two, they accomplish their digestion and
absorption of detritus by maximizing their surface area: volume ration below ground. Three,
they maintain their genetic variability by performing both asexual and sexual reproduction
(funky). Four, they are responsible for the colonization of land by terrestrial plants, and plants
owe their success to a symbiotic relationship with fungi. Five, fungi are famous as plant and
animal pathogens, yet they also make life as we know it worth living. I’m talking about yeast
(beer and bread)
Fungi Kingdom
Fungi are also known as Mycota & Eumycota
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Fungus is mycelium made out of a web of tiny filaments called hyphae
Mycelium is tiny and can’t be seen until they develop into mushrooms, puffballs,
truffles, brackets, cups, “birds’ nests”, “corals”, or other fruiting bodies
Most fungus’ cell walls are build out of chitin
Absorb Nutrients from organic material that they live in
Do not have stomachs
More then 70,00 species
Functions
 Can cause animal diseases such as:
 Ringworm
 Athlete’s foot
 Can cause plant diseases such as:
 Rusts
 Smuts
 May cause severe damage to crops
 Can provide numerous drugs
 Penicillin
 Antibiotics
 Foods like mushrooms
http://www.fungionline.org.uk/3hyphae/1hypha_ultra.html
http://mycorrhizas.info/
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What is the fungus cell wall made of?
What animal disease can it cause?
What plant disease can it cause?
How do they survive?
What else are they called?
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Mycelium
Ringworm & athlete’s foot
Rusts & Smuts
Absorb nutrients from organic material
Mycota or Eumycota