BIOL 123 Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: Dimorphic Fungus, British Mycological Society, Dermatophyte
Document Summary
Decomposer and predatory fungi play important ecological roles. Decomposer dead organism and waste, preventing the buildup of organic debris in. Only certain fungi and bacteria can break down cellulose and lignin, main ecosystems compoenent of wood. Earths recycling engineers, release co2 in the air and other minerals into souil. Predatory soil fungi use special adhesive or nooselike hyphae to trap tiny soil and water making them available to plants and algae animals like nematodes. Help control populatiosn of nematodes, some that attack plant roots. Other fungi obtain nutrients by attacking insects and certain types of these species have been used as a biological control agents to kill black field crickets. Pathogenic fungi cause plant and animal diseases. Plant pathogenic fungi have specialized hyphae called haustoria whose increased cell memnbrane surface area aids in the absorption of organic food from plant cells. Athletes foot and ringworm caused byt dermatophytes because they colonize on the epidermis.
