Fungi
- These can be single celled organisms
such as yeast.
- Yeast reproduces asexually through budding, and it is used in making bread, beer and wine.
- Most fungi are multi cellular e.g. mushrooms and mucor.
Features of fungi:
- They are composed of thread like structures called hyphae which together form a network called mycelium.
- Have cell walls made from chitin.
- Do not photosynthesise as they do not have chloroplasts.
- Contain a vacuole
- Store carbohydrates as glycogen.
- Mostly multi cellular.
- Have many nuclei.
- Reproduce sexually through structures called sporangium e.g. mushrooms that release spores.
- When the spores land, new hyphae grow branching to form a new mycelium.
- Some fungi are pathogens (causes disease) e.g. fungus causing ringworm.
- Fungi feed saprotrophically.
- They do this by extracellularly secreting digestive enzymes onto their food to break it down into small soluble molecules which can then diffuse from a region of higher concentration to lower concentration.
