BIOL 226 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Osmosis, Multicellular Organism, Glomeromycota
2 Nov 2020
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Fungi produce spores through sexual or asexual life cycles. The ancestor of fungi was an aquatic, single-celled, flagellated protist. Fungi have radiated into a diverse set of lineages. Fungi play key roles in nutrient cycling, ecological interactions, and human welfare. Nutrition and ecology: despite their vast diversity, all fungi derive nutrition in the same way, absorption, many fungi grow by forming multicellular filaments, a body structure that plays an important role in how they obtain food. Like animals, fungi are heterotrophs; they cannot make their own food as plants and algae can. Absorption: unlike animals, fungi do not ingest (eat) their food, a fungus absorbs nutrients from the environment outside of its body, many fungi do this by secreting hydrolytic enzymes into their surroundings. Mutualistic fungi that live in termite use their enzymes to break down wood. The versatile enzymes that enable fungi to digest a wide range of food sources are not the only reason for their ecological success.
