BIO 203 Lecture Notes - Lecture 30: Pezizaceae, American Chestnut, Chestnut Blight
1 Dec 2016
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Document Summary
Vegetative body may be unicellular (yeast) or composed of microscopic threads called hyphae. Filamentous mycelium = majority of the fungal body. Most fungi store their food as glycogen. Fungi, grow their mycelia into their food and secrete enzymes to digest it, then use the large surface area to absorb nutrients. Fungi and other organisms use (cid:498)osmotic pumps(cid:499) to drive transport of fluids: Fungi digest their food by secreting enzymes into the substrate, releasing sugars, amino acids, etc. Active transport of the food near the tip of the mycelia creates a high concentration of solutes. Water flows into hypha by osmosis, creating turgor pressure. Turgor pressure caused flow of water (and food) up the hypha to rest of the organism. Also supports tip-growth by providing force to push the tip of the hypha deeper into the food. Fungi are excellent weavers, making hyphae into amazing structures: In macroscopic structures, hyphae grow in sheets and stacks.
