AP Notes, Outlines, Study Guides, Vocabulary, Practice Exams and more!

Fungi Groups

major fungi groups - Chytridiomycota, Zygomycota, Basidiomycota, Asomycota 

  • Chytridiomycota - aquatic fungi w/ flagella
    • proves that fungi/animals first originated from water
  • Zygomycota - includes bread molds, Glomales (helps terrestrial plants)
    • no septa until they form sporangia/gametangia
    • zygosporangium - area where haploid nuclei fuse, has a thick coat to help fungus survive in bad conditions
  • Basidiomycota - includes mushrooms, toadstools, rusts, smuts
    • basidium - club-shaped reproductive structure
    • meiosis occurs immediately after diploid cell forms
    • primary mycelium - made of monokaryotic hyphae
    • secondary mycelium - made of dikaryotic hyphae
    • basidiocarps - mushroom tops, consists of only secondary mycelium
  • Ascomycota - contains 75% of known fungi
    • bread yeasts, truffles, common molds
    • ascus - saclike reproductive structure
    • meiosis occurs immediately after diploid cell forms
    • 8 haploid ascospores form from diploid cell
    • ascus can burst >> spreads spores out very far
    • asexual reproduction in conidia

lichens - symbiosis between fungus and photosynthetic organism 

  • photosynthetic organism found between the filaments in the fungus
  • fungus sometimes feeds off photosynthetic host (but usually mutualism)
  • fungus penetrates cell wall, not cell membrane
  • able to survive in harshest environments
  • pollution decrease >> lichen increase

Mycorrhizae - symbiosis between fungus and plant roots 

  • fungus helps plants absorb nutrients from the soil
  • plants supply fungus w/ carbon
  • arbuscular mycorrhizae - hyphae penetrate outer cells of plant root
    • forms coils, swelling
    • formed w/ earliest terrestrial plants
    • epiparasite - non-photosynthetic plant that feeds off of mycorrhizae
  • ectomycorrhizae - hyphae surrounds root, doesn’t penetrate
    • less common than arbuscular mycorrhizae
    • found w/ forest trees, orchids

endophytes - fungi that live inside plants 

  • parasitism or commensalisms
  • could produce toxins to protect plant from herbivores

parasitic fungi - difficult to treat due to close relationship w/ animals 

  • Candida - causes oral/vaginal infections
  • chytridiomycosis - parasitic symbiosis between fungus and frogs
  • Fusarium - produces vomitoxin on spoiled foods >> brain damage
  • aflatoxins - carcinogenic compound produced by fungus growing on corn, peanuts, cotton seed
Subject: 
Biology
Subject X2: 
Biology

Need Help?

We hope your visit has been a productive one. If you're having any problems, or would like to give some feedback, we'd love to hear from you.

For general help, questions, and suggestions, try our dedicated support forums.

If you need to contact the Course-Notes.Org web experience team, please use our contact form.

Need Notes?

While we strive to provide the most comprehensive notes for as many high school textbooks as possible, there are certainly going to be some that we miss. Drop us a note and let us know which textbooks you need. Be sure to include which edition of the textbook you are using! If we see enough demand, we'll do whatever we can to get those notes up on the site for you!