BIOL 1108 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Basidiomycota, Ascus, Cordyceps
Document Summary
Fungi are absorptive heterotrophs: saprophytes: decomposers feed off dead organisms, parasite: feed off living organisms, mutualistic: associated with living autotrophic organisms but not lethal; either algae, cyanobacteria, or plants. Note that fungi and animals are more closely related than either is to plants. The study of fungi is called mycology. Fungi are eukaryotic organisms: lacking plastids (hence they are heterotrophic, storing energy in glycogen rather than in starch, their cell wall which is composed of chitin (n-glucose) They differ from animals by: their inability to capture prey or solid food particles by phagocytosis. Most fungi are multicellular organism composed of long filaments (hyphae) that are only one cell thick. The term mycelium refers to the entire mass of hyphae making up the body of a fungus. The term hypha refers to a single individual; filament of fungal cells. The fungal vegetative body is composed of hyphae well-suited for absorption and mass flow.
