Mycology-Virology

What are fungi?

• They’re the mushroom that we eat and
those found in athlete’s foot

• Eukaryotic, spore-bearing, heterotrophic

organisms that produce extracellular
enzymes and absorb their nutrition.
 Characteristics of Fungi
• Eukaryotic
• Multicellular (except Yeasts)
• Non-vascular organisms (Plants and
Animals are vascular)
• Reproduce by means of spores
– Both sexual and asexual
• Typically non-motile (except Chytrids
which has a mobile phase)
 Characteristics of Fungi
• Cytoplasmic ultrastructure broadly similar
to plant cells, but differ significantly in
kinds of organelles and structures
• Fungi are heterotrophic not autotrophic like
plants
• Unlike animals (also heterotrophic), which
ingest then digest, fungi digest then ingest
(exoenzymes)
 Characteristics of Fungi
• Most fungi store their food as glycogen
(like animals); plants store food as starch
• Most fungi have very small nuclei, with
little repetitive DNA
• Mitosis is generally accomplished without
dissolution of the nuclear envelope
(produces different type of microtubules
during nuclear division
Cell wall containing Chitin
 Nutritional Status of Fungi
• Saprophytes
– Use non-living organic material
– Important scavengers in ecosystems
– Along with bacteria, fungi are important in
recycling Carbon, Nitrogen and essential nutrients
• Parasites
– Use organic material from living organisms,
harming them in some way
– Range of hosts: from single celled diatoms to fungi
to plants to animals to humans
 Characteristics of Fungi
• Mutualists (symbionts)
– Fungi that have mutualistically beneficial
relationship with other living organisms
– Mycorrhizae: associations of fungi with plant’s
roots
– Lichens: associations of fungi with algae or
cyanobacteria
 Characteristics of Fungi
• Fungal cells occurring in branching
filaments are called hyphae.
– Vegetative hyphae
– Aerial hyphae
• A mass of filaments is called a mycelium.
• Cross walls separate the cells in the hypha
of many species of fungi (septa)
Fungal Form and Function
Anatomy
Hyphae and mycelium

Mycelium Hyphae
 Septae
• Coenocytic hyphae – lack cross walls
– Also known as non-septate hyphae
– Rhizopus stolonifer
– Differentiates fungi from other eukaryotic cells,
how?
 Aseptate hypha,
Septate hypha a.k.a. coenocytic
Three ploidy types
Haploid – most fungal hyphae and all spores
have haploid nuclei

Diploid – diploid nuclei are found transiently

during the sexual phase (if present)

Heterokaryon – unfused nuclei from different

parents occupying the same unit of hypha
 Yeast cells
• Unicellular fungi that do not form hyphae
or mycelia
• Oval cells measuring 5 to 10 um in
diameter
• Reproduce both sexually and asexually
 Yeast and Fungal forms
• Some fungi can form a mycelium under
certain environmental conditions and revert
to a yeast form under other environmental
conditions
• Known as biphasic or dimorphic
• Candida albicans
 Are there anaerobic fungi?
• Facultative anaerobes
• Fermentation
• Metabolism
• Glycolysis
• Industrial products: ethyl alcohol, beer, wine,
liquor (other products?)
• Saccharomyces cerevisiae
• Aspergillus niger
 Reproduction
• Sexual and Asexual means
• Role of spores
• Asexual reproduction
– Spores have identical genetic make-up
– Does not need to involve union of sex cells
– Budding?
Fungal Form and Function
Reproduction

Asexual – default mode under stable

conditions; spores are produced

Sexual – usually only under stressful

conditions; spores are produced;
many mating types possible
(essentially like having many different
sexes or genders)
 Sexual Reproduction
• Begin with the production of haploid
gametes (produced by parent fungal cells of
opposite sexual types)
• Gamete production occurs by meiosis
• Gametes fuse to form diploid cell called
zygote
• Gametes are either male (plus) or female
(minus)
 Sexual reproduction in fungi
+
fusion of compatible hyphae
– (plasmogamy)
hyphae (n)

fused hyphae (n + n)
dispersal of spores

+ zygote (2n) fusion of nuclei

+ (karyogamy)
–
–
sexual spores (n)
meiosis of zygotes (2n)
“zygote-like”
structures
Sexual reproduction in fungi

Haploid spores may disperse long distances

away from the fruiting body
 Key
Black Bread Mold Haploid (1n)
Heterokaryotic (1n + 1n)
Diploid (2n)

Plasmogamy

Mating type (-) Mating type (+)

Sexual reproduction

Zygosporangium
Karyogamy

Asexual
reproduction Meiosis
Fungal Life Cycles
Key
Fusion of
Haploid (n) Heterokaryotic
compatible
Heterokaryotic
stage

hyphae PLASMOGAMY
(fusion of cytoplasm)
(plasmogamy)
Diploid (2n)
KARYOGAMY
(fusion of nuclei)
Spore-producing
structures
SEXUAL Zygote
REPRODUCTION
Spores
ASEXUAL Mycelium
REPRODUCTION

MEIOSIS
GERMINATION
GERMINATION
Spore-producing
structures
Spores
Fungal Life Cycles
Key
Fusion of
Haploid (n) Heterokaryotic
compatible
Heterokaryotic
stage

hyphae PLASMOGAMY
(fusion of cytoplasm)
(plasmogamy)
Diploid (2n)
KARYOGAMY
(fusion of nuclei)
Spore-producing
structures
…initiates a SEXUAL Zygote
REPRODUCTION
heterokaryotic
Spores
ASEXUAL Mycelium
REPRODUCTION
phase
MEIOSIS
GERMINATION
GERMINATION
Spore-producing
structures
Spores
Fungal Life Cycles
Key
Fusion of
Haploid (n) Heterokaryotic
nuclei
Heterokaryotic
stage

(karyogamy) PLASMOGAMY
(fusion of cytoplasm)
Diploid (2n)
KARYOGAMY
(fusion of nuclei)
Spore-producing
structures
SEXUAL Zygote
REPRODUCTION
Spores
ASEXUAL Mycelium
REPRODUCTION

MEIOSIS
GERMINATION
GERMINATION
Spore-producing
structures
Spores
Fungal Life Cycles
Key
Fusion of
Haploid (n) Heterokaryotic
nuclei
Heterokaryotic
stage

(karyogamy) PLASMOGAMY
(fusion of cytoplasm)
Diploid (2n)
KARYOGAMY
…initiates a
Spore-producing
(fusion of nuclei)
structures
zygotic phase SEXUAL Zygote
REPRODUCTION
Spores
ASEXUAL Mycelium
REPRODUCTION

MEIOSIS
GERMINATION
GERMINATION
Spore-producing
structures
Spores
Fungal Life Cycles
Key
Fusion of
Haploid (n) Heterokaryotic
nuclei
Heterokaryotic
stage

(karyogamy) PLASMOGAMY
(fusion of cytoplasm)
Diploid (2n)
KARYOGAMY
…initiates a
Spore-producing
(fusion of nuclei)
structures
zygotic phase SEXUAL Zygote
REPRODUCTION
Spores
ASEXUAL Mycelium
REPRODUCTION

…which is
perhaps best MEIOSIS
describedGERMINATION
as GERMINATION
Spore-producing
“zygote like” structures
Spores
Fungal Life Cycles
Key
Meiosis in
Haploid (n) Heterokaryotic
“zygote-like”
Heterokaryotic
stage

cells produces PLASMOGAMY

(fusion of cytoplasm)
spores
Diploid (2n) or cells

that will KARYOGAMY

(fusion of nuclei)
Spore-producing
produce spores
structures
Zygote
SEXUAL
REPRODUCTION
Spores
ASEXUAL Mycelium
REPRODUCTION

MEIOSIS
GERMINATION
GERMINATION
Spore-producing
structures
Spores
Fungal Life Cycles Both asexual & sexual
reproduction produce
haploid spores
Key

Haploid (n) Heterokaryotic

stage
Heterokaryotic
PLASMOGAMY
(fusion of cytoplasm)
Diploid (2n)
KARYOGAMY
(fusion of nuclei)
Spore-producing
structures
SEXUAL Zygote
REPRODUCTION
Spores
ASEXUAL Mycelium
REPRODUCTION

MEIOSIS
GERMINATION
GERMINATION
Spore-producing
structures
Spores
 Kind of Asexual Spores
• Arthrospore – spore formed by
fragmentation of the tip of the hyphae
• Blastospore – produced as an outgrowth
along a septate hypha.
• Conidiospores – unprotected spores formed
by mitosis at the tips of the hyphae
• Sporangiospores – spores produced within a
sac called sporangium
 Sexual reproduction in a chytrid:
flagellated spores

spores
 Other forms of Reproduction
• Budding
• Occurs in yeasts when it undergoes mitosis
and forms a tiny cell at its border
• The cell produced increases in size and
eventually separates from the parent cell
Budding Yeast
 Body Plan
• unicellular (yeast), filamentous, or both (=dimorphic)
• Hypha (pl. hyphae) is the basic “cellular” unit in
filamentous fungi; they may be septate or coenocytic
(aseptate); collectively a mycelium
• limited tissue differentiation and division of labor
• somatic & reproductive structures
• plectenchyma: all organized fungal tissue, somatic &
reproductive
 Nuclear Status
• Eukaryotic; uni, bi- or multinucleate
• Haploid, diploid (less frequent)
• Monokaryon
(1 nucleus per hyphal compartment)

• Dikaryon
(2 nuclei per hyphal compartment)

• Homokaryotic

• Heterokaryotic
• Mitosis
– intranuclear: nuclear membrane doesn't
breakdown during mitosis
– centric in flagellated forms; typical centrioles
of eukaryotes
– noncentric in nonflagellated forms; possess
spindle pole bodies (SPBs); differ from
centrioles in lacking microtubular component
 Organelles
• typical eukaryote assemblage of organelles
+ fungal specific ones
• mitochondria
• endoplasmic reticulum
• Golgi equivalents
single cisternal elements
• vacuoles
• microbodies
function in fatty acid degradation,
Nitrogen metabolism
 Cell Wall
Chitin
• well defined
• chitin
β 1-4 n-acetyal glucosamine
∀ β -glucans
polymers of glucose Cellulose
β 1-3 glucose
• cellulose in some
β 1-4 glucose

β 1-3 glucan

chitin β -glucans
•fungal specific organelles involved in cell wall growth
Spitzenkorper
associated with growing hyphal tips in septate fungi
chitosome
microvesicles transporting chitin synthases to growing cell wall
Uses of Fungi
As Biotic control agents
The first antibiotic used by humans

Staphylococcus
Penicillium

Zone of
inhibited
growth
Uses/Functions of Fungi
Biotic control agents
Used against termites, rice weevils, etc.
Uses/Functions of Fungi
Interesting example…
of agriculture in insects

Leaf-cutter ants cut

and carry leaf fragments
to their nests where the
fragments are used to
farm fungi
Uses/Functions of Fungi
Interesting example… of fungal cowboys

unlucky nematode
Some soil fungi
snare nematode
worms in hyphal
nooses and then
digest them
fungal hypha
Functions/Uses of Fungi
Interesting example… of fungi &
conservation

The golden toad became

extinct within the past 20
years, owing to anthropogenic
environmental deterioration,
which also facilitated
pathogenic chytrid fungi