exam

• Fungi


  • Eukaryotic
  • Cell walls made mostly of chitin (carbohydrate that's heavily nitrogenated and very durable)
  • Mostly multicellular (some unicellular)
  • Always heterotrophic (organism that eats other plants or animals for nutrients)
• Dimorphic fungi


  Can switch between multi or unicellular depending on environment
• Hyphae


  Filamentous network, tubular walls that surround plasma membrane and cytoplasm of cells
• Mycelia


  Threads of hyphae; a root-like structure of a fungus consisting of a mass of branching, thread-like hyphae
• Types of hyphae


  • Septate
  • Aseptate (coenocytic)
• Septate hyphae


  Have boundaries/walls between the cells
• Aseptate hyphae


  Do not have walls between the cells
• Mycorrhizae


  Fungi that form symbiotic relationships with plants
• Haustoria


  Can either bud up against or penetrate plant cells to form the symbiotic relationship
• Ectomycorrhizal fungi


  Don't penetrate the plants cell wall, stay outside the cell wall (form mutualistic association with plants)
• Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi


  Can penetrate plant cell wall (form mutualistic association with plant)
• Asexual reproduction in fungi

  Involves simple mitosis of haploid cells
• Deuteromycetes


  Included all fungi that were strictly asexual (no longer an existing class of fungi)
• Sexual reproduction in fungi

  1. Mating types (plus and minus)

  2. Plasmogamy (when plus and minus cells fuse together)

  3. Karyogamy (nuclei fusing together)
• Most fungi can alternate between asexual and sexual reproduction
• Fungi


  • Members of the Opisthokont clade (found in the unikonts group)
  • Nucleariids are reminiscent of some of the earliest fungi
• Five main phyla of fungi

  • Chytridiomycota (the Chytrids)
  • Zygomycota (the Zygote Fungi)
  • Glomeromycota (the arbuscular mycorrhizas)
  • Ascomycota (the Sac Fungi)
  • Basidiomycota (the Club Fungi)
• Chytridiomycota (the Chytrids)


  • Smaller group, strictly aquatic, most oddball/most dissimilar, produce flagellate spores which is unusual for a fungus
• Zygomycota (the Zygote Fungi)

  • Black mold
• Glomeromycota (the arbuscular mycorrhizas)


  • Newest of the 5 groups, have haustoria that can penetrate plant cell walls
• Ascomycota (the Sac Fungi)


  • Most fungi fall into this group, most likely to switch between asexual and sexual
• Basidiomycota (the Club Fungi)


  • Almost always reproduce sexually, most mushrooms fall into this group
• Genetics determines where a fungus belongs in a phyla/group
• The Chytrids (Chytridiomycota)


  • Good decomposers, ubiquitous in the environment (usually aquatic), have flagellated spores (zoospores) which makes them unique, can cause disease, smallest of the groups
• The zygomycetes (Zygomycota)


  • Form zygosporangia (structures that are produced that include the spores), examples include Rhizopus (black bread mold) and Pilolobus
• The Glomeromycetes (Glomeromycota)


  • Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (arbuscles), form associations with the root systems of plants and haustoria to penetrate cell wall of plant cell, once thought to be zygomycetes, one of the newest groups created
• The Ascomycetes (Ascomycota)


  • Produce asexual spores in conidia, produce sexual spores in asci, biggest of all the groups (most fungi are in this group), spores always come in multiples of 4, examples include Saccharomyces (bakers yeast), Penicillium, and morels
• The basidiomycetes (Basidiomycota)


  • Produce sexual spores in basidia (which are the reproductive organs of these fungi; the underneath part of the mushroom), found in gills under the mushrooms, rarely exercise their asexual option, examples include mushrooms and larger fungi, smuts, and rusts
• Roles of fungi in the environment

  • Important as decomposers (saprophytes)
  • Form mutualistic associations with many organisms (mycorrhizae, endophytes, lichens, fungus/animal mutualism)
• Interactions between fungi and humans

  • Many fungi are human pathogens (mycoses; disease caused by a fungus), many fungi attack human crops, many fungi are important in food preparation, many fungi produce mycotoxins, many antibiotics come from fungi
• Land plants (Embryophytes)


  • Multicellular/Eukaryotic, cell walls made largely of cellulose, always autotrophic (photosynthesis), contain chlorophyll a and b in chloroplasts, evolved from green algae
• Phragmoplasts


  Air bubbles that form where the cell plate is going to be made
• Cell plates


  A structure that forms when the cytoplasm of a plant cell divides
• Peroxisomes


  Contain enzymes and are responsible for detoxifying oxygen
• Sperm in land plants

  Uniquely structured to shoot sperm into water but evolved to produce pollen on land
• Charophytes


  Earliest form of plants when they first started to come on land
• Characteristics of almost all land plants

  • Alternation of generations life cycle
  • Sporophyte (diploid)
  • Gametophyte (haploid)
  • Placental transfer cells
  • Walled, haploid spores
  • Coated with sporopollenin
  • Develop from sporocytes in sporangia
  • Multicellular gametangia
  • Archegonia (produce female gametes)
  • Antheridia (produce male gametes)
  • Apical meristems in shoots and roots
  • Cuticle as part of the epidermis
• Mycorrhizae


  Played a large part in the move to land
• Basic groups of plants

  • Nonvascular plants (Bryophytes)
  • Vascular plants (Tracheophytes)
  • Seedless vascular plants (Ferns)
  • Seed plants
  • Gymnosperms
  • Angiosperms
• Bryophytes (Nonvascular plants)


  • No true roots, leaves or stems, usually smaller in size (no lignin), enclosed reproductive structures, gametophyte stage predominates life cycle, many are commercially valuable