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A fungus ( pl.: fungi [2] or funguses [3]) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as one of the traditional eukaryotic kingdoms, along with Animalia, Plantae and either Protista [4] or Protozoa and Chromista.
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- Mushroom
Culinary mushrooms in a diversity of shapes and colors...
- Mold
Mold growth in buildings generally occurs as fungi colonize...
- Yeast
The word "yeast" comes from Old English gist, gyst, and from...
- Protozoa
History of classification Class Protozoa, order Infusoria,...
- Sarcoscypha Coccinea
Sarcoscypha coccinea, commonly known as the scarlet elf cup,...
- Omphalotus Nidiformis
Omphalotus nidiformis, or ghost fungus, is a gilled...
- Entomophthoromycetes
The Entomophthorales are an order of fungi that were...
- Mycetozoa
Slime Molds; Slime Mold Solves Maze Puzzle from abc.net.au;...
- Pathogens
Pathogenic fungi are fungi that cause disease in humans or...
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Fungus, any of about 144,000 known species of organisms of the kingdom Fungi, including yeasts, mildews, molds, and mushrooms. Fungi are some of the most widely distributed organisms on Earth and are of great environmental and medical importance.
- Origin in Evolution
- Structure and Lifestyle
- Uses
- Concerns
Fungi evolved around 1 billion years ago. Fossils from the Devonianperiod show evidence of fungi likely having an even older history. There are fungi fossils and ancient fungi found trapped in amberbut compared to material like bone fungi fossils are rare due to their rapid decay Fungi are all eukaryotes. This means the cells of all three types of ...
The Typical Fungi Cell
In addition to a cell nucleus that contain the DNA, fungal cells have ribosomes to turn the DNA genes into proteins, mitochondria that produce energy for the cell, and other organelles. Fungi cell walls are mainly composed chitin. Meanwhile, plant cell walls are cellulose found in cell walls of plants. Fungi do not have any chlorophyll and so cannot capture energy from sunlightlike plants do. This is one way fungi are more similar to animals, which also lack chlorophyll.
How fungi eat
Most fungi are saprophytic. These fungi digest and absorb dead organic matter around them. Fungi can absorb the food molecules through their cell walls.p107 However there are many very different other ways some fungi get nutrients and live. Some are parasites, some are pathogens, some are predatory, some cooperate with other living things in symbiosisand some fungi have more than one lifestyle. Pleurotus fungi, also called "oyster mushrooms", are an example of fungi that both eat dead matter...
Multicellular fungi and unicellular fungi
Fungi can exist as one cell (unicellular) or many cells (multicellular)as organisms.
Edible fungi
Edible fungi are widely consumed as human food.Some are grown in mushroom farms and others are foraged in woods, fields and anywhere else fungi produce mushrooms. Not all fungi produce edible mushrooms. Some fungi species produce toxic mushrooms. People learn to forage from older family members in cultures with mushroom foraging traditions, from amateur mycological and mushroom hunting societies, from studying many guidebooks and in formal classes.
Fermentation and other food production
Certain types of cheese require a fungal species. Examples include Blue cheese and Camembert cheese, which owe their unique flavor and texture to the cheese. Yeasts are widely used in the production of beer, certain breads and more fermented foods.
Rare and environmentally-threatened fungi
Many factors, from habitat destruction to pressures from pollution to climate change may cause some fungi to become more rare or even go extinct.
Invasive fungi species
Just like animals, plants or any other type of life, there are some fungi that spread from where they are native to places where they are invasive species. A fungi can become an invasive species anywhere they are not native to and are potentially causing harm in the ecosystemincluding out-competing native species or directly harming native species by eating them or changing their habitat too much. Fungi can become invasive because of being transported to areas where they are not native delibe...
Poisonous fungi
Some fungi are poisonous to people or to other animals. Sometimes the poison helps the fungus by keeping insects from eating the mushrooms, other times the poison is not made by the fungus to be a poison but does cause harm if eaten by people or other animals. A mushroom that is poisonous for one type of animal to eat may be safe for another animal. No known fungus is unsafe to touch unless a person is allergicto it. All known poisonous fungi must be eaten or put into the body some other way...
Ascomycota is a phylum of the kingdom Fungi that, together with the Basidiomycota, forms the subkingdom Dikarya. Its members are commonly known as the sac fungi or ascomycetes. It is the largest phylum of Fungi, with over 64,000 species.
- Fungal phyla. Note: “-mycota” is used to designate a phylum while “-mycetes” formally denotes a class or is used informally to refer to all members of the phylum.
- Chytrids. The chytrid Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis is seen in these light micrographs as transparent spheres growing on (a) a freshwater arthropod (water mite) and (b) algae.
- Zygomycete life cycle. Zygomycetes have asexual and sexual phases in their life cycles. In the asexual phase, spores are produced from haploid sporangia by mitosis (not shown).
- Rhizopus spores. Asexual sporangia grow at the end of stalks, which appear as (a) white fuzz seen on this bread mold, Rhizopus stolonifer. The black tips (b) of bread mold are the spore-containing sporangia.
A fungus is any member of a large group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. The Fungi are classified as a kingdom that is separate from plants and animals. The discipline of biology devoted to the study of fungi is known as mycology or fungal biology, which is ...
Kingdom Fungi, one of the oldest and largest groups of living organisms, is a monophyletic group, meaning that all modern fungi can be traced back to a single ancestral organism. This ancestral organism diverged from a common ancestor with the animals about 800 million to 900 million years ago.
