Review of Lecture 7: The good, the bad, and the deadly: Fungi

1.Kingdom Fungi includes the phyla Chytridomycota (the chytrids), Zygomycota (bread molds, sharp-shooting fungi, and insect parasites), Ascomycota (sac fungi -- yeasts, Penicillium, ergot, wood-rotting fungi), Basidiomycota (club fungi -- mushrooms and shelf fungi), Deutermycota (imperfect fungi).

2.Phylum Oomycota (water molds) is actually in Kingdom Protista because it has flagellated cells at some point in its lifecycle.

3.All fungi are heterotrophic -- saprophytic or parasitic.

4.Lichens -- symbiotic relationship between a fungus and a unicellular algae or cyanobacterium. Several different morphologies. Important organisms in ecosystems - colonizes bare rock and helps in production of soil.

5.Fungi important ecologically: decomposers; symbiotic relationships (mycorrhizae and lichens).

6. Economically important as well: food, medicine, biotechnology, some cause disease, & losses due to dry rot.