BIO 200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Dikaryon, Coenocyte, Saprotrophic Nutrition
27 Jun 2015
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Fungal anatomy: hyphae: long, filamentous cells, may be septate (incomplete barriers between cells) or coenocytic (single large cell with many nuclei) Septa: incomplete barriers between septate cells: free flow of cytoplasm allows nutrients to travel fast to growing tips. Example: lichen (shelter) and photosynthetic bacteria (sugars for food) Example: leaf cutter ants (insert leaves into fungal body) and fungi (home and food for larvae: saprophytes (saprobes): eat dead material (decomposers) Break down difficult items (plant matter: parasites: eat living material. Fungal parasites are difficult to treat because they are eukaryotic (similar to our cells) Microsporidia: tiny, obligate, intracellular parasites of animals, chronic wasting disease, common in insects and fish. Infect using polar tube: injects entire content of spore into host through polar tube, replicated by host cell, can"t reproduce by themselves, host cell replicates spores and lyses to release them. Do not need as much energy due to parasitic nature: very similar to viruses, evolved from other fungi (life)
