What Is Fungi?

Question

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Answer 1

What is a fungus?
To answer this question, let's start with something familiar: a common mushroom. Everyone has seen mushrooms in gardens or fields and knows that they mostly appear in autumn, with each mushroom lasting for a short time before rotting away to a sloppy mess. Typically, there's a stem, a cap and gills under the cap.

When you look at such a mushroom growing out of the ground, you are looking at just part of a fungus - not the whole organism. The rest of the organism (often 90% or more) is underground and consists of a network of microscopically thin "threads" which spread through the soil. An individual thread is called a hypha and the network of hyphae is called a mycelium. The mycelium is there throughout the year, feeding and expanding. You will often see the mycelium referred to as the vegetative part of the fungus.

Under suitable conditions the underground mycelium will produce mushrooms, which are also composed of hyphae. The function of a mushroom is to produce and disperse spores, from which new fungi can develop.

One way to put this into a more familiar framework is to make an analogy with an apple tree. You know that the apple tree in your garden is there throughout the year but apples are produced for just a short time. So the mycelium is there throughout the year but mushrooms are produced for just a short time. The role of the apples is to produce seeds from which new apple trees can develop, analogous to the role of a mushroom, as explained above. Your apple tree typically produces many apples, so a single mycelium can produce many mushrooms. In some years your apple tree may produce no apples, because of poor conditions - but even in such years your apple tree is still there. So, in some years a mycelium may produce no mushrooms, because of poor conditions - but the mycelium is still there, in the ground. The comparison between mushrooms and apple trees is a useful explanatory analogy, but it can't be pushed too far because plant seeds and fungal spores are fundamentally different.

In a mushroom, the spores are produced on the gills that are on the underside of the cap. When mature, the spores are released from the gills, fall down under the force of gravity and, when clear of the bottom of the cap, are then carried away by air breezes. Mushroom spores are tiny, typically less than a hundredth of a millimetre long, and so are easily dispersed by even the slightest of breezes. The role of the mushroom stalk is to raise the cap above the grass, twigs or stones that are close to the ground. If the cap is raised a suitable distance, the spores released from the gills have a good chance of being carried away a substantial distance - rather than getting trapped by obstacles such as the grass, twigs or stones mentioned above.

The growing mycelium
Underground, each hypha grows in length, but not width, and may branch. Each branch then grows in length, may branch again and so on. In addition, connecting hyphae may form between neighbouring hyphae. Over time, the habit of repeatedly branching and lengthening means that the mycelium can explore a large volume of soil.

There is no photosynthesizing green pigment (chlorophyll) in the mycelium, so the organism doesn't make it's own food (as plants do). The hyphae cannot swallow food fragments (as animals do). Rather, enzymes are secreted from the tips of the hyphae in the mycelium and these enzymes break down the complex molecules found in organic matter in the soil, into smaller molecules, which are then absorbed through the hyphal walls near the growing tips.

As the mycelium exhausts its food supply it grows outward, seeking more food sources. There is little point in maintaining the inner mycelium, since the food in that area has been exhausted. Therefore the inner mycelium dies, with the organism extracting from there whatever nutrients it can re-use and transporting those outward.

As you can see, the mycelium does not expand as a circle but as a ring, with most of the activity near the ring's outer edge. Not surprisingly, mushrooms often appear to grow in a ring, the so-called fairy ring (see fairy rings in MYCELIUM SECTION), that reflects the underground mycelial presence. While the steadily expanding, ring-like growth is theoretically the ideal growth pattern for the mycelium, there are many factors which can disrupt this perfectly symmetrical growth. For example, one part of the expanding mycelium may encounter an inhospitable or nutrient-poor area, perhaps a river, a mass of solid rock or soil that's too acidic or too alkaline. Or during construction work, someone runs a bulldozer through a mycelium, leaving only a couple of isolated mycelial patches intact. Whenever there is some such disruption, the mycelium (or what's left of it) will still expand into new areas but the expansion may become quite irregular - perhaps stopping completely in some directions or being faster in one direction than another.

There is more about mycelia in the MYCELIUM SECTION.

Finally....the answer to: What is a fungus?
The descriptions of the mushroom and the underground mycelium encapsulate the essence of all the (macro) fungi that are the subject of this website. Basically, there's an out-of-sight mycelium and visible spore producing structures - called fruiting bodies or sporocarps.

A mushroom is just one type of sporocarp and in the TYPES OF FUNGI SECTION you'll see examples of various types of sporocarps. You'll already be familiar with some of them. For example, most people have seen puffballs on the ground and bracket fungi growing out of trees. But remember whenever you see a mushroom growing from wombat dung, a puffball growing on a grassy oval or a bracket fungus growing from a gum tree - you're seeing just the sporocarp. Its sole function is to produce and disperse spores (more of this in the DISPERSAL SECTION). Out of sight there's a mycelium in the wombat dung, under the grassy oval or in the trunk of the gum tree - secreting enzymes to break down organic matter in the dung, soil or tree trunk.

Strictly speaking, it is incorrect to call a mushroom a fungus, since we are only looking at part of the fungus, but people commonly refer to mushrooms, puffballs, etc. as 'fungi' - which is understandable since these are the only parts we usually see.

Answer 2

A fungus (plural fungi) is a eukaryotic organism that digests its food externally and absorbs the nutrient molecules into its cells. Fungi are very important economically: yeasts are responsible for fermentation of beer and bread, and is an integral part of mushroom farming

Answer 3

What Is Fungi

Answer 4

saprophytic and parasitic organisms that lack chlorophyll and include molds, rusts, mildews, smuts, mushrooms and yeast; singular, fungus.


Aerobic, multicellular, nonphotosynthetic, heterotrophic microorganisms. The fungi include mushrooms, yeast, molds, and smuts. Most fungi are saprophytes, obtaining their nourishment from dead organic matter. Along with bacteria, fungi are the principal organisms responsible for the decomposition of carbon in the biosphere. Fungi have two ecological advantages over bacteria: (1) they can grow in low moisture areas, and (2) they can grow in low pH environments


A group of organisms that lack chlorophyll and obtain nutrients from dead or living organic matter


Molds, mildews, yeasts, mushrooms, and puffballs, a group of organisms lacking in chlorophyll (ie, are not photosynthetic) and which are usually non-mobile, filamentous, and multicellular. Some grow in soil, others attach themselves to decaying trees and other plants whence they obtain nutrients. Some are pathogens, others stabilize sewage and digest composted waste.

Answer 5

The fungi (singular fungus) are a kingdom of eukaryotic organisms. They are heterotrophic and digest their food externally, absorbing nutrient molecules into their cells. Yeasts, molds, and mushrooms are examples of fungi. The branch of biology involving the study of fungi is known as mycology.

Fungi often have important symbiotic relationships with other organisms. Mycorrhizal symbiosis between plants and fungi is particularly important; over 90% of all plant species engage in some kind of mycorrhizal relationship with fungi and are dependent upon this relationship for survival. Fungi are also used extensively by humans: yeasts are responsible for fermentation of beer and bread, and mushroom farming and gathering is a large industry in many countries.

Fungi and bacteria are the primary decomposers of organic matter in most terrestrial ecosystems.

The major divisions (phyla) of fungi are mainly classified based on their sexual reproductive structures. Currently, five divisions are recognized:

The Chytridiomycota are commonly known as chytrids. These fungi produce zoospores that are capable of moving on their own through liquid menstrua by simple flagella.
The Zygomycota are known as zygomycetes and reproduce sexually with meiospores called zygospores and asexually with sporangiospores. Black bread mold (Rhizopus stolonifer) is a common species that belongs to this group; another is Pilobolus, which shoots specialized structures through the air for several meters. Medically relevant genera include Mucor, Rhizomucor, and Rhizopus. Molecular phylogenetic investigation has shown the zygomycota to be a polyphyletic group.
Members of the Glomeromycota are also known as the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Only one species has been observed forming zygospores; all other species only reproduce asexually. This is an ancient association, with evidence dating to 350 million years ago.
The Ascomycota, commonly known as sac fungi or ascomycetes, form meiotic spores called ascospores, which are enclosed in a special sac-like structure called an ascus. This division includes morels, some mushrooms and truffles, as well as single-celled yeasts and many species that have only been observed undergoing asexual reproduction. Because the products of meiosis are retained within the sac-like ascus, several ascomyctes have been used for elucidating principles of genetics and heredity (e.g. Neurospora crassa).
Members of the Basidiomycota, commonly known as the club fungi or basidiomycetes, produce meiospores called basidiospores on club-like stalks called basidia. Most common mushrooms belong to this group, as well as rust (fungus) and smut fungi, which are major pathogens of grains.
Although the water moulds and slime moulds have traditionally been placed in the kingdom Fungi and those who study them are still called mycologists, they are not true fungi. Unlike true fungi, the water moulds and slime moulds do not have cell walls made of chitin. In the 5-kingdom system, they are currently placed in the kingdom Protista. Water moulds are descended from algae, and are placed within the phylum Oomycota, within the Kingdom Protista.

Answer 6

Fungi are saprophytic plants evolved on this earth their position is next to algae in the plant kingdom. Sometimes they are considered as the scavengers some of them are useful while the parasitic forms are harmful.

Answer 7

Classified as organisms which have;
1. a cell wall made of chitin, membrane, nuclei, cytoplasm (and vacuole in yeast)
2. heterotrophic feeders obtaining energy from chemical digestion of complex foods (either parasitic or saphrophytic (feed on living hosts)

Examples;
Mushrooms, toadstools, moulds and yeasts

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Answer 9

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Answer 10

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