Mycology .DR.

Gbolagade JONATHAN

What is mycology? How fungi differ from other plants?

The word mycology was derived from 2 Greek words ‘mykes’ means mushrooms and ‘logos’
which means study .
Taken together .Mycology literarily means study of mushrooms.
This was the believe of earlier biologist until the discovery of primitive microscope by Antonie
van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723)who was regarded as the father of microscopy
Millions of other microscopic and macroscopic fungi that share similar characteristics with
mushrooms were discovered after the invention of microscopes.
In the modern concept, Mycology is now refers to as the study of fungi.
Fungi are eukaryotic organisms with true nucleus and membrane bounded organelles.
They are non-vascular Cryptogams included in Thallophyta along with algae due to their
undifferentiated plant body.

Fungi are achlorophyllous, heterotrophic, eukaryotic thallophytes. They are non-green in color
with the capacity to live in all kinds of environments. They generally feed on dead and decaying
organic matter
Study of fungi is called mycology and the one who study fungi is called Mycologist

General characters of Fungi

1. Fungi are found in all types of environments where organic materials are available. For
examples, water, air, dead and decaying organic matter, living organisms.
2. Some fungi are unicellular. The thallus of the fungi is long and tubular with filamentous
branches called as hyphae. Hyphae are aseptate, coenocytic, uni-, di- or multinucleate.
3. The mass of interwoven hyphae is called mycelium. Mycelium may be unicellular or
multicellular.
4. The cells of fungi have definite cell wall mainly made up of chitin. Chitin is a
nitrogenous material containing polysaccharide. Other components of the fungal cell wall
may be cellulose-glycogen, cellulose-glucan (found in oomycetes), Cellulose-chitin,
chitin-chitosan (found in zygomycetes), Chitin-glucan (found in ascomycetes and
basidiomycetes) etc.
5. Fungi are eukaryotic and they do not have plastids. As fungi do not have chlorophyll,
they cannot perform photosynthesis. They obtain their nourishment from the environment
by extracellular digestion and absorption of digested food material. So they are known as
heterotrophs.
6. Fungi live as saprophytes on dead and decaying organic matter, as parasites on/inside
living organisms. Some fungi grow in symbiotic relationship with algae and form lichens.
Some of the fungi grow in close association with the roots of the vascular plants forming
mycorrhizae.
7. The reserve food material of the fungi is glycogen, fats or lipid globules.
8. Fungi reproduce vegetatively by fragmentation, budding and fission.
 9. During favorable conditions, they reproduce asexually by spores. The asexual spores are
called sporangiospores and conidia. The sporangiospores may be zoospores or
aplanospores. Zoospores are flagellated spores with one or two flagella. Aplanospores are
non-flagellated spores.
10. Sexual reproduction in fungi is through gametes and is carried out with the help of
planogametic copulation, gametangial contact, gametangial copulation, spermatization or
somatogamy.
11. Fungi show progressive reduction of sexuality
12. Fungi exhibit asexual haplontic, haplontic-dikaryotic, haplo-diplontic or diplontic life
cycle.

Fungi have a great economic importance to the mankind.

1. Taxomyces is used for the production of the taxol which is an anti-cancer medicine.
2. Trichoderma is exploited for the production of cellulase enzyme. Cellulase is often used
by fruit juice companies for making a clear solution.
3. Trichoderma is also used in certain biofertilizers. They enhance the growth of the crop by
producing indoleacetic acid.
4. Aspergillus oryzae are used by genetic engineers for isolation S1 endonucleases.
5. Aspergillus niger is used for the production of citric acid.
6. Penicillium roqueforti is used in the production of blue stilton cheese.
7. Mushrooms are rich source of proteins, and other essential nutrients.
8. Certain Fungal species are exploited for the mass production of enzymes including
Alpha-amylase.
9. Researchers have identified a fungus that can break down plastics[1].

Importance of Yeast Cell (Saccharomyces cerevisiae):

1. Yeast is used in the production of alcohol beverages by the process of fermentation.

2. They are also used in the dairy industries for the production of cheese and yogurt.
3. They are used by researchers as a model organism.
4. Genetically modified yeast cells are also used for the production of Hepatitis vaccine.
5. Biofuel cells are one of the booming research fields. Yeast has been successfully used for
the production of electricity.
6. Yeast cells are also used for mass production of Xylitol which is a sweetener.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ALGAE AND FUNGI

Algae Fungi

The possess chlorophyll which in some of them is The fungi lack chlorophyll
masked by other pigments such as brown, red etc.
With the help of chlorophyll, they are able to synthesize their own food Lacking chlorophyll, the fungi are unable to synt
and thus are called autotrophic in their mode of nutrition. They get it readymade sources either by living as
resions fungi are refer to as heterotrophic in their
of nutrition.

The algal thallus is composed of true parenchyma cells. The fungal thallus which is termed das mycelium
The unit f structure an algal thallus thus is a cell. differentiation of the cells but composed of a fals
Thus the unit of structure of a
fungus thallus is not a cell but hyphae.

The cell wall is typically composed of cellulose. The cell or hyphae wall is composed of fungus c
or often called chitin.
The food reserve is chiefly in the form of starch. The reserve food invariably accumulated in the f
glycogen and not starch.
The algae grow in the habitat where sun light is present. They generally have grown in dark and dim light

They grow in water or in a damp soil and sometime as an They have grown in the wide variety of hab
epiphytes rarely as endophytes. parasites in the tissue of plants and animals.
The sexual apparatus increases in complexity from the There is a progressively and gradually simplifica
simple to the higher forms. ultimate illumination of the sexual apparatus fro
lower to higher fungi.

Similarities between fungi and Algae

Fungi and algae both prefer to live in moist environments. In fact, one of the benefits algae
derive from their symbiotic lichen relationship with fungi is their ability to survive on land in a
moist environment.
Both algae and fungi are thallophytes (plant body not differentiated into root, stem and leaves)
Both algae and fungi are placed together in the division thallophyta of cryptogams
With the exception of blue green algae, majority of algae and fungi are eukaryotic
Both fungi and algae are, in general, examples of organisms possessing a haploid nuclei. This
means they have only a single copy of each chromosome. By contrast, diploid organisms, such
as humans and most mammals, have two copies of each chromosome.
Vascular tissue system is absent in both groups
Both algae and fungi processes cell wall made of polysaccharides, chemical nature of cell wall
varies in algae and fungi
Symbiotic members are present in both groups (algae with animals, fungi with roots of higher
plants, between algae and fungi as in lichens)
Both groups can reproduce by vegetative reproduction by fragmentation and fission.
Both algae and fungi can reproduce asexually by the production of various motile and non-motile
spores
Sex organs are naked in both groups, no protective covering for sex organs in both groups

General Characteristics of fungi

Some of the most important characters of fungi are as follows: 1. Occurrence
2. Thallus organization
3. Different forms of mycelium
4. Cell structure
5. Nutrition
6. Heterothallism and Homothallism
7. Reproduction.

Occurrence

 Fungi are cosmopolitan and occur in air, water, soil and on

plants and animals.They prefer to grow in warm and humid places. Hence, we keep food in the
refrigerator to prevent bacterial and fungal infestation.

THALLUS ORGANIZATION:
Except some unicellular forms (e.g. yeasts, Synchytrium), the fungal body is a thallus called
mycelium. The mycelium is an interwoven mass of thread-like hyphae (Sing, hypha). Hyphae
may be septate (with cross wall) and aseptate (without cross wall). Some fungi are dimorphic
that found as both unicellular and mycelial forms e.g. Candida albicans.The thallus may be two
types: Unicellular and filamentous.

 Unicellular thallus: In some of the lower fungi, thallus is more or less a spherical,
single celled structure. At the time of reproduction it becomes a reproductive unit.
Such fungi are called holocarpic. In the unicellular holocarpic forms, the mycelium is
absent e.g. Synchytrium. Some holocarpic fungi (e.g., yeast) producing bud cells in
succession and these remain attached to one another in a chain. Such a chain of bud cells
is referred to as pseudomycelium.

 Filamentous thallus: In most true fungi, the thallus is filamentous composed of

Hyphae. Loosely aggregated hyphae are collectively forms a network known as
mycelium. Each hypha may vary in shapes and sizes. Branching of hyphae is
dichotomous. On the basis of presence or absence of septa the hyphae of mycelical
fungi are of two types:
  Nonseptate or aseptate hyphae: Mycelium contains numerous nuclei,lying in a
common mass of cytoplasm, without cross wall in the hyphae, E.g., oomycetes and
zygomycetes. Such a condition is known as coenocytic. However, septa may be laid
down at the time of formation of reproductive organs to delimit them from the rest of
the vegetative hyphae, therefore called Pseudosepta. E.g., Allomyces.

 Septate Hyphae: Hyphae are septate and hyphal segments may contain one, two or
more nuclei. E.g., Ascomycotina, Basidiomycotina, and Deuteromycotina. There are
two types of septa:

• Primary septa: Primary septa are formed in association with mitotic or meiotic
nuclear division, and they separate the daughter nuclei. These types of septa are found
in Ascomycotina, Basidiomycotina and their asexual states.

Adventitious septa: Adventitious septa are formed in the absence of mitosis or meiosis and
occur especially in association with change in the local concentration of cytoplasm. These are
found in lower groups of fungi as mastigomycotina and zygomycotina