Chapter 25, There\'s a Fungus Among Us

Multicellular fungi are composed of numerous small filaments

The hyphae are grouped together in a mass called...

In majority of fungi, the hyphae are divided into compartments by septa (cross walls) that allow for some structures, such as mitochondria and ribosomes, to pass.

Most fungi are saprobes that break down organic matter

These fungi form as the result of unspecialized hyphae fusing

Anchoring hypahe that penetrate the bread and have digestive enzymes

Horizontal surface hyphae

Reproductive hyphae

When a spore lands on a substrate, it forms hyphae then mycelium. After mycelium develops it produces sporangiophores that rise above the surface and contain spore containing sporangia. They release their spores and seek new substrate.

Rhizopus reproduces by conjugation. They produce two different hyphae that develop swollen progametangia on the ends facing each other. They end up touching and cross walls form. Next a thick walled zygosporangium forms, replacing progametangia.

Many ascomycetes are found in a symbiotic relationship with algae, forming lichens. Ascomycetes get name from Ascus, a large saclike cell responsible for producing reproductive ascopores.

Starts when hyphae with one nucleus of opposite mating strains come into contact. Each female gametangium, an ascogonium, forms a trichogyne that grows toward the male gametangium, called the antheridium. The asexual spores form singularly or in chains from conidiophores and are called conidia.

Phylum Glomeromycota is represented by fewer than 250 species of fungi known as mycorrhizae. These fungi live in a mutualistic relationship primarily on the roots of terrestrial plants.

Basidiomycetes are called "club fungi" because they produce spores, basidiospores, in a club shaped structure, the basidium. Most live on dead or dying plants. They reproduce mostly through sexual reproduction.

The base of a mushroom has a cup shaped volva, a stalk like structure called a stipe , a ring around the upper end of the stipe called an annulus, and a cap, or pileus. Beneath the cap are slit-like structures called gills,