Fungus Fact Friday

Fungus Fact Friday

#015: Characteristics of Phylum Glomeromycota [Archived] 1

Archived

#015: Characteristics of Phylum Glomeromycota [Archived]

Note: This is an archived post. You can find the current version of this post here. The Glomeromycota are all fungi which form arbuscular mycorrhizae (AM). Mycorrhizae are a type of mutualism with plants where the fungus gets sugars and gives up hard-to-extract nutrients (especially phosphorous).  AM fungi accomplish this by forming structures within the plant’s root cells while not causing a disease reaction.  Most land plant species form AM, and only a few families are considered non-mycorrhizal.  AM fungi tend to be generalists, colonizing a variety of different plant species.  Each plant is usually colonized by multiple AM species.  This mycorrhizal network has a variety of different roles in an ecosystem.  It supplies nutrients to plants, determines what species make up an ecosystem’s plant community, and allows other plants (like orchids and Indian pipe) to parasitize larger plants via the network.  A recent study has also suggested that plants...

#014: Characteristics of Phylum Chytridiomycota 1

Fungus Fact

#014: Characteristics of Phylum Chytridiomycota

Phylum chytridiomycota is the oldest phylum of fungi, with a fossil record dating back to the Vendian period (around 500 million years ago). It is no surprise, then, that chytrids are the simplest fungi.  Hyphae produced by chytrids can be unicellular, diminutive rhizoids or multicellular and as large as those produced by species in the other fungal phyla.  Chytrids are unique among the fungi in that they produce motile spores.  Each spore is equipped with one whiplash flagellum at its posterior.  Other fungus-like organisms which produce motile spores (often with multiple flagella) but have cellulose cell walls are no longer classified as fungi (chytrids, like all other fungi, have chitin in their cell walls).  Asexual zoospores are formed in a zoosporangium and are released through a pore.  The simplest chytrids form a very small network of rhizoids and produce only one zoosporangium per thallus.  However, more complex chytrids may form...

#013: Characteristics of Phylum Basidiomycota [Archived] 19

Archived

#013: Characteristics of Phylum Basidiomycota [Archived]

Note: This is an archived post. You can find the current version of this post here. Phylum Basidiomycota accounts for about 35% of all described fungal species.* This phylum contains the fungi that people are most familiar with. The classic “Mario mushroom” (based on Amanita muscaria), the grocery store button mushroom and other varieties of Agaricus bisporus, shiitakes, oyster mushrooms, and even the major “magic mushrooms” are all basidiomycetes.  However, basidiomycota also includes rusts and smuts, which are economically important plant pathogens, some yeasts, and a few lichenized fungi.  Like the ascomycota, the basidiomycota fill a variety of different ecological roles.  Many form mycorrhizae with plants (amanitas, chanterelles, russulas, etc.), others parasitize plants (rusts, smuts, honey mushrooms, etc.), a lot decompose organic material (cultivated mushrooms, yeasts, etc.), and some live in a variety of symbioses with insects (this includes some interesting mutualisms with leaf cutter ants and termites).

#012: Characteristics of Phylum Ascomycota 16

Fungus Fact

#012: Characteristics of Phylum Ascomycota

Phylum Ascomycota includes about 75% of described fungal species.*  It includes the baker’s yeast, Saccharomyces ceriviciae, scientifically important fungi such as Neurospora crassa and Penicillium chrysogenum, a number of desirable edible mushrooms, most notably morels and truffles, most lichenized fungi, and many important plant pathogens, such as the causal agent of chestnut blight.  As you can tell from this list, the ascomycetes have a variety of life history strategies and ecological roles.  Many ascomycetes grow as hyphae, others grow as yeasts, and some can even switch between the two.  Some ascomycota only reproduce sexually, others only reproduce asexually, and many do both.  Ascomycetes can be saprophytic (they decompose non-living matter), parasitic (on plants, bugs, humans, etc.), or mutualistic (with algae, plants, or even beetles).  Ascomycota have provided us with penicillin and have helped scientists understand the cell cycle, meiosis, and heredity.  Despite this diversity, Ascomycota is a monophyletic group (it...

#011: Characteristics of Kingdom Fungi [Archived] 61

Archived

#011: Characteristics of Kingdom Fungi [Archived]

Note: This is an archived post.  You can read the current version of the post here. This post begins to answer the age-old question, “What is a fungus?” Fungi are a monophyletic group—meaning that they arose from a single common ancestor—and therefore share a number of traits.  Everyone has their own list of important traits common to all fungi, and I have come up with one that agrees with as many as possible.

#010: Fungal Fossils 0

Fungus Fact

#010: Fungal Fossils

It may surprise you to learn that fungi are reasonably well represented in the fossil record. Most of these fossil fungi are microscopic and lack reproductive structures. Additionally, it is often difficult to infer their ecology, making positive identification difficult, if not impossible.  Fossil fungi are often found inside fossilized plant tissue.  This includes fossils of mycorrhizae, plant pathogens, and wood decomposers.  Many of these finds come from Rhynie Chert in Scotland, which dates to the Devonian period (around 400 million years ago, characterized by small land plants and the first forests).  This is around the same time of the first fossilized land plants.  The fact that mycorrhizae were already well-established by this time suggests that fungi were instrumental in helping plants colonize the land.  The best-preserved fossil fungi are found in amber, often growing on insects.  A mosquito trapped in Baltic amber (from the Eocene period, around 47 million...

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Fungus Fact

#009: Overview of the Fungal Life Cycle

Filamentous fungi begin their lives as sexual spores. Each spore has a haploid (only one copy of each chromosome) nucleus, which is designated “n.” When the spore lands in a favorable environment, it germinates and produces a mycelium. There are two ways that this mycelium can grow vegetatively: through growth of the mycelium or through asexual reproduction. The fungus can produce asexual mitospores (n) which are dispersed and grow a new mycelium that is genetically identical to the parent. When this mycelium encounters another fungus with a compatible mating type they fuse together (plasmogamy). However, their nuclei remain separate and the cells become dikaryotic (meaning “two nuclei,” designated “n+n”). This gives rise to a dikaryotic mycelium. In ascomycetes and some other fungi, the dikaryotic mycelium only results in the production of fruiting bodies. In basidiomycetes, the dikaryotic mycelium grows vegetatively and produces fruiting bodies. Some basidiomycetes form clamp connections to...

#008: “A Glow in the Dark” 0

Fungus Fact / Literature Connection

#008: “A Glow in the Dark”

Literature Connection: “A Glow in the Dark” from Gary Paulsen’s Woodsong [text here]. I remember reading this short story for an English class in grade school, probably sometime in October.  It was only after re-reading this story for this post that I realized how much of the story had stuck with me over the past 7 to 11 years.  Maybe now I know I found it so compelling.  We were most likely learning about suspense at the time, which is why I decided to use this story for the Fungus Fact Friday post before Halloween.  After reading this story and my explanation, you should never again question whether or not fungi can be scary.

#007: Omphalotus illudens, the Jack-O-Lantern Mushroom [Archived] 4

Archived

#007: Omphalotus illudens, the Jack-O-Lantern Mushroom [Archived]

Note: this is an archived post. You can read the current version of this post here. Fungus Fact Friday #007: Spotlight on Omphalotus illudens, the “Jack-O-Lantern mushroom”. If the spirit of Halloween were a mushroom, it would be O. illudens.  This mushroom is commonly known as the “Jack-O-Lantern mushroom” for a couple of good reasons.  First, it is bright orange, like the pumpkins that decorate doorsteps all over the United States in October.  Not only is the cap orange, but so are the gills, the stipe, and the interior.  Second, the mushroom’s gills glow in the dark, especially when the mushrooms are young and fresh.  There are stories of this glow being bright enough to use a clump of mushrooms as a torch.  Again, this is reminiscent of the jack-o-lanterns carved out for Halloween.  Furthermore, the mushroom often has a sweet smell and is poisonous.  Nothing says Halloween like something...

#006: Zombie Ants 4

Fungus Fact

#006: Zombie Ants

The parasitic fungus Ophiocordyceps unilateralis infects rainforest ants, turning them into “zombie ants.”  The fungus takes over the ants’ minds and directs the ants to die in the most advantageous spot for the fungus.  Although this ant/fungus interaction has been known since 1859, it only recently (within the past 5 years) fell under the public eye after a study examined some of the specifics of this interaction.  The story starts when a fungal spore lands on the exoskeleton of an unsuspecting ant.  The spore germinates and forms an infection structure called an appressorium.  This structure is capable of producing enormous pressure (fungal plant pathogens have been known to produce pressures equal to the pressure inside the wheel of a 747) which allows the fungus to penetrate the ant’s exoskeleton.  Then, the real fun begins.  Ant colonies exhibit a behavior known as “social immunity,” where diseased individuals are forcibly removed from...