BIOL 121 Lecture 11: Lecture 11
Document Summary
Fungi: 4 modes of nutrition: saprophytic fungi. Grow upon dead organic materials such as moist wood, moist leather, rotten vegetables, rotten fruit, cheese, rotting leaves, moist bread and dung: parasitic fungi. Absorb organic material from living tissues of hosts they parasitize. Quite harmful to their hosts & cause many serious diseases (crops) E. g. , rusts, smuts & mildews: predacious fungi trap animals (e. g. , nematodes) Use a rapidly constricting ring around a nematode to hold it captive. Hyphae si(cid:374)k haustoria [(cid:862)hyphal tips(cid:863)] i(cid:374)to the body of the victim: mutualistic fungi. E. g. , lichens = fungus + alga (or cyanobacterium) Fungus provides structure & protection from environment. Leaf-cutter ants cut pieces of plant tissue which they carry to underground nests and feed to cultivated basidiomycetes fungi. The ants then feed on the fungi. When winged female ants disperse to form new nests they carry the fungal inoculum with them. The fungi is the one that breaks it down.
