Diversity of Fungi and Protista

1
Kingdom Fungi

2
Videos:
Introduction to Fungi:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ojzbeaZDqk

Planet Wild – Fungi:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_rprVa-RY4

Common fungi include mushrooms, yeasts and molds

– but there is much more to them than that!

3
Kingdom: Fungi
 Can live in many environments
 Some produce poisonous toxins
 Many important as decomposers
 All are heterotrophs – feed on organic matter
 Some commercially valuable

4
 Can grow on cloth, paint, leather, insulation on wire, bread,
fruit, vegetables and meat

5
Fungal morphology
(external features)
 Fungi consist of mycelia, which
are networks of branched
hyphae adapted for absorption

6
Reproductive
structures

Animation on
Nexus: Fungal
reproduction
and nutrition

7
Ascomycetes (sac fungi)
The edible Morchella
esculenta, is often
found under trees in
Aleuria aurantia; orchards.
also known as
orange peel fungus.

Tuber melanosporum is a
truffle, grows underground
and emits strong odors.

Neurospora crassa feeds as

a mold on bread and other food. 8
Penicillium, a mold commonly
encountered on food

2.5 m

9
Yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, in
various stages of budding 10 m

10
 Basidiomycetes
(club fungi)
Fly agaric (Amanita
muscaria), a common Puffballs emitting
species in conifer spores
forests in the
northern hemisphere

Maiden veil
fungus
Shelf fungi, (Dictyphora),
important a fungus with
decomposers an odor like
of wood rotting meat

11
Fungi are successful, as they produce
spores that spread easily

12
 Fungi can harm plants
 Ex: ergots produce fungal growths on grains
• Toxic to human – cause hallucinations,
temporary insanity and death

 Several toxins isolated from ergots used to:

• Produce LSD
• Stop nasal bleeding
• Stop maternal bleeding after childbirth

13
ergots

14
This Mushroom Starts Killing You Before You Even Realize It:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl9aCH2QaQY
15
 Fungi can harm animals
 Mycosis – general term for fungal infections

 Ex:
• Athlete’s foot (various fungi)
• Some vaginal yeast infections (Candida albicans)
• Some urinary track infections (Candida albicans)
• Thrush (Candida albicans)

16
Athlete’s foot

17
Vaginal yeast infection
18
Thrush

19
 Commercially valuable fungi
 Baking and production of beer (yeast)

 Sources of antibiotics (Penicillium sp.)

 Certain species used to produce

cheeses with certain flavours and odors:

• Penicillium roqueforti (found in cave near

French village of Roquefort – used to
make many blue cheeses)

• Penicillium camemberti (brie, camembert)

20
21
 Some are considered delicacies: truffles, Morchella sp.

22
Morel identification (for your interest only):

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Edible+Morel+Mushrooms&&view=detail&mid=9E5168BBE59F
FD9E75BE9E5168BBE59FFD9E75BE&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3DEdibl
e%2BMorel%2BMushrooms%26Form%3DVDRSCL%26%3D0
 The discovery of penicillin
Alexander Fleming in 1941

 1928: Alexander Fleming discovers

antibiotic properties of Penicillium

 1939-1945: World War II – penicillin

saves many lives

 1945: Fleming, Carey, Chain receive

Nobel Prize in Medicine

24
 Alexander Fleming and the Accidental Mould Juice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZWjzcsTd5M

Alexander Fleming's Discovery of Penicillin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RGs-2eNnjM
25
Staphylococcus Penicillium

Zone of
inhibited
growth

26
 What are lichens?
 Two very different beings, an alga and a
fungus, live together in a symbiotic association

“composite organism”

27
A fruticose (shrub-like)
lichen

A crustose (crust-like)
lichen

A foliose (leaf-like)
lichen

28
 Fungal
hyphae Algal
layer

Algal cell
Fungal hyphae
10 m

29
 Protista
 Not a kingdom, but a group of organisms
 Most are aquatic (freshwater or marine)
 If terrestrial, live in damp soil
 Eukaryotic → Domain Eukarya
 Can be autotrophic or heterotrophic
 Can be unicellular or multicellular (colonial)
 Grouped as: plant-like (algae), animal-like (protozoa) and
fungal-like (molds and mildews)
30
Introduction to the Protists:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-6dzU4gOJo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zsdYOgTbOk 31
 1) Algae (plant-like Protista)

 Photosynthetic (autotrophs)
 Live in aquatic environments
 Vary in size from (1-5μm to
100m in kelp)
 Unicellular or multicellular
(colonial)

32
Fig. 28-13

Diatoms

3 µm
33
Diatoms

34
 50 µm
 Colonial and multicellular algae

Volvox, a colonial
freshwater organism.

Caulerpa sp.

Ulva, or sea lettuce. This edible seaweed has leaflike

blades and rootlike structures anchoring the alga
35
Seaweeds

36
 The seaweed is
grown on nets in
shallow coastal
waters.

A worker spreads
the harvested sea- wakame
weed on bamboo
screens to dry.
Paper-thin, glossy
sheets of nori make a
mineral-rich wrap
for rice, seafood, and
vegetables in sushi.
37
 2) Protozoa (animal-like Protista)
 Eat other organisms (heterotrophs)
 Often pathogens

Ex: Trypanosoma
 Have flagella
 Cause African
sleeping sickness

9 m
38
Amoeba sp.

pseudopodia
39
Paramecium sp. (with cilia)

40
 3) Molds and mildews (Fungal-like Protista)
 Plasmodial slime molds, water molds, mildews
Physarum polycephalum

A mold A mildew
41
Slime Mould Time-Lapse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GY_uMH8Xpy0
42
Can Slime Mould Solve Mazes? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyzT5b0tNtk
43
 Oogonium
Egg nucleus (n)

Antheridial hypha
MEIOSIS with sperm nuclei (n)

FERTILIZATION
SEXUAL
REPRODUCTION Zygotes
Zoosporangium (oospores) (2n)
(2n)
Key
Haploid (n)
Diploid (2n) Zygote
germination

44