• Fungi (singular fungus — mushroom, from Greek) are
chlorophyll-less thallophytic plant.
• Due to absence of chlorophyll, they are heterophytes i.e.,
depend on others for food.
• They grow in various habitats and show much diversity in their
structure, physiology and reproduction.
• They developed long back in the geological time scale.
• Their existence was found from fossil records of Pre-Cambrian
period.
• Information from ancient literature indicates that the fungi
were used as food by human beings.
• At present, the fungi are used in medicine and also as food in
addition to other aspects.
• The fungi cause diseases of crops (spots, rusts and smuts etc.)
and on human beings (Aspergillosis, Blastomycosis etc.).
• Some of the plant diseases like late blight of potato (c.o.
Phytophthora infestans) and brown spot of rice (c.o.
Helminthosporium oryzae) caused famine in Ireland
(1845) and in West Bengal (India) (1943), respectively.
• More than 5,000 genera and 50,000 species of fungi
have been recorded, but their number may be much
more than the actual record.
• The subject which deals with fungi is known as
Mycology (mykes — mushroom; logos— study) and the
concerned scientist is called mycologist.
• Alexopoulos (1962) defined fungi as “nucleated, spore-
bearing, achlorophyllous organisms which generally
reproduce sexually and asexually and whose usually
filamentous, branched somatic structures are typically
surrounded by cell walls containing cellulose or chitin
or both”.
• Alexopoulos and Mims (1979) defined fungi as
eukaryotic spore bearing, achlorophyllous organisms
that generally reproduce sexually and asexually, and
whose usually filamentous, branched somatic
structures are typically surrounded by cell walls con
taining chitin or cellulose, or both of these substances,
together with many other complex organic molecules”.
General Characteristics
The general characteristics of fungi may be given
in the three sub-divisions as follows:
1) Structure
2) Habitat
3) Mode of Reproduction
Structure
• Thallus : Well defined, made up of chitin or
cellulose.
• Nucleus: Eukaryotic, uni-bi or multinucleate,
homo or heterokaryotic.
• Nutrition : Heterotrophic.
Habitat
• Fungi are found everywhere where organic
material is present.
• They are universal in distribution.
• Many fungi are terrestrial.
• Some fungi are aquatic.
• Aquatic fungi are said to be primitive.
• Majority prefer to grow in darkness or dim
light in moist habitats.
Habit
• Heterotrophs: They are found or obtain food
readymade from external source.
• Saprophytic: They obtain food from dead and
decaying organic matter.
• Parasitic:
• They live in living bodies of other organisms
and obtain food from them.
• Parasites are of three types:
• Obligate Parsites: They grow only upon
suitable living host tissues.
• Facultative Saprophytes: Normally they live as
parasites, but grow like saprophytes.
• Facultative Parsites: They live as saprophytes,
but grow like parasites.
Thallus Organization in Fungi
• In fungi body is gametophytic and thalloid (i.e., cannot be
differentiated into root, stem and leaves).
• It may be unicellular (e.g., Synchytrium) or filamentous.
• Yeasts are unicellular or acellular.
• At times they form pseudo mycelium by aggregation of
daughter cells in chain.
• Some fungi are dimorphic and exist both in unicellular and
hyphal form, e.g., Blastomyces dermatitidis, Candida albicans.
• Majority of the fungi have filament like structures called
hyphae (sing. hypha, Gr. hypha = web). A mass of loosely
interwoven hyphae is called mycelium (Fig. 1).
• The mycelium may be intercellular (present in
between the cells of the host tissue),
intracellular (penetrates in the host tissue cells)
in parasitic fungi or spreads as loose mass of
interwoven hyphae in saprophytic fungi.
• Mycelium may be systemic (scattered
throughout the various parts of the host) or
localized (spreads near the point of infection)
in parasitic fungi.
• Hyphae may be septate (divided by septum, L.
septum, partition) and it results in the formation
of uninucleate or monokaryotic (e.g., Penicillium,
Fig. 1), bi-nucleate or dikaryotic (e.g..Puccinia, Fig.
2) or multi-nucleate (e.g., Aspergillus, Fig. 3) cells.
• Some hyphae are not divided by cross walls or
septa and are called aseptate. The aseptate and
multinucleate mycelium is called coenocytic (e.g.,
Rhizopus, Fig. 4).
• In higher fungi (e.g., subdivision Ascomycotina) the
septa have a small pore in the centre to maintain he
protoplasmic continuity between the cells.
• The septum with a simple centre pore is called simple
pore septum (e.g., subdivision Ascomycotina, Fig. 5) or
surrounded by double membranous structures called
septal pore cap or parenthosome on both the sides.
• It is called dolipore septum. (in most of the
subdivision Basidiomycotina except the order
Uredinales, Fig. 6).
• Except slime molds (subdivision Mastigomycotina) the fungal
cell is bounded by a cell wall.
• Fungal cell wall is made of chitin or fungal cellulose (a
polymer of βN-acetyl glucosamine, Fig. 7). However, in some
lower fungi (e.g., Oomycetes), it is made up of cellulose.
• Protoplasm consists of every cell organelle except plastids.
• Plasma lemma forms convoluted outgrowths beneath the
cell wall.
• These are called lomasomes (a characteristic of fungi).
• The function and exact nature of lomasomes is still unknown
but probably they help in the synthesis of cell wall material.
• Vacuoles are present and they are bounded by membranes
called tonoplast.
• Sterols are found.
• Motile cells are absent in the life cycle of higher fungi
(subdivisions Ascomycotina, Basidiomycotina and
Deuteromycotina).
• However, the reproductive cells (zoospores and
gametes) are motile in lower fungi (subdivision
Mastigomycotina). The motile cells may be uni- or
biflagellate.
• 12. The flagella (Sing. flagellum; L. flagellum, whip) are
of two types—acronematic or whiplash type (sharply
pointed tip) and pantonematic or tinsel type (feathery).
• The internal structure of the flagellum is similar to
eukaryotes. It shows typically 9 + 2 arrangement of
microtubules (Fig. 8 A).
Nutrition in Fungi:
• Fungi prefer to grow in darkness, dim light, moist
habitat, suitable temperature and where there is
availability of living or dead organic matter.
• They do not synthesize their own food. Thus, all fungi
are heterotrophic and holozoic (like animals).
• The fungi are chemo-organotrophs (derive energy
from oxidation of organic substances) and their
nutrition is absorptive (extracellular).
• Enzymes convert the insoluble food into soluble form
which is then absorbed.
On the basis of their mode of nutrition, the fungi are
divided into the following three categories:
Parasites:
• Fungi which obtain their food material from the living
organisms are known as parasites.
• If it grows on the external surface of the host it is called
ectoparasite but if it enters the host (the living organism
infected by a parasite is called host and abnormal condition of
the host due to presence of parasite is called disease) and
feed within, it is called endoparasite.
• Intercellular mycelium produce haustoria to absorb the food
material from the cells (e.g., Albugo) while intracellular
mycelium directly absorb the food material from the host
cells, (e.g., Ustilago maydis).
• Parasites are of two types:
(a) Obligate Parasites:
Fungi which grow only upon living host tissues are called obligate
parasites e.g., Erysiphe.
(b) Facultative (partial) Saprophytes:
Normally these fungi live as parasites but in the absence of the living
host they may also get their food material from the dead organic matter
(saprophytes) e.g., Taphrina deformans and some smuts like Ustilago,
Tolyposporium, Sphacelotheca etc.
B. Saprophytes:
Fungi obtaining their food material from the dead organic matter are
known as saprophytes. Fungal hyphae penetrates hard cell walls of their
hosts with the help of enzymes like zymase, invertase etc.
Saprophytes are of two types:
(a) Obligate Saprophytes:
Fungi grow only on dead organic matter and do not have the
capacity to infect the plants or animals e.g., Mucor mucedo.
(b) Facultative Parasites:
Normally these fungi are saprophytes but have the capacity to
infect the living organisms also e.g., Botrytis cinerea, Pestalotia etc.
C. Symbionts:
The living of two (or more) organisms in close association to their
mutual benefit is known as symbiosis e.g., mycorrhiza, lichens. The
association between the fungus and roots of higher plants is called
mycorrhiza (Gr., Mykes = mushroom, rhiza = root). Lichens show a
symbiotic association between algae and fungi.
