FUNGAL ASSOCIATION

Important classes in which the nutrition of fungi may be classified are as follows:
The fungi are chlorophyllless plants and cannot synthesize their own food unlike green plants
from carbondioxide and water in the presence of sunlight. They are so simple in structure that
they cannot obtain inorganic food directly from the soil, and therefore they are always
dependent for their food on some dead organic material or living beings.

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The fungi which obtain their food from dead organic materials are called the saprophytes,
whereas the fungi obtaining their prepared food from living plants or animals are called the
parasites. The living beings on which the fungi parasitize are called the hosts. Some grow in the
association of other plants and are mutually beneficial.
This association is called the symbiosis and the participants are symbionts. From the point of
view of their nutrition the fungi may be classified as saprophytes, parasites, symbionts and
predacious fungi. They are heterotrophic and never autotrophic.

(a) Saprophytes:
The saprophytic fungi live on dead organic materials produced by the decay of animal and plant
tissues. They grow upon dead organic matters such as rotten fruits, rotten vegetabes, moist
wood, moist leather, jams, jellies, pickles, cheese, rotting leaves, plant debris, manures, horse
dung, vinegar, moist bread and many other possible dead organic materials. Saprolegnia,
Mucor, Rhizopus, Penicillium, Morchella, Aspergillus, Agaricus and many others are good
examples of saprophytic fungi.

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The saprophytic fungi absorb their food from the substratum by ordinary vegetative hyphae
which penetrate the substratum, e.g., Mucor mucedo. In other cases of the saprophytic fungi
such as Rhizopus and Blastocladiella the rhizoids develop which penetrate the substratum and
absorb the food material. In the case of saprophytic fungi the mycelium may be ectophytic or
endophytic. In the case of Rhizopus the mycelium is ectophytic whereas the rhizoids remain
embedded in the substratum and said to be endophytic.
(b) Parasites:
The parasitic fungi absorb their food material from the living tissues of the hosts on which they
parasitize. Such parasitic fungi are quite harmful to their hosts and cause many serious
diseases. These fungi cause the great losses to the human beings or indirectly. Many diseases
of the important crops are caused by parasitic fungi. The rusts, smuts, bunts, mildews and many
other plant diseases are important examples of fungal diseases of crops. Their mode of life is
parasitic and the relation of host and parasite is called the parasitism.

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The parasites which survive on living hosts and only on living hosts are called the obligate
parasites. Such parasites cannot be grown upon dead organic culture media, e.g., Puccini a,
Peronospora, Melampsora, etc. The parasitic fungi which usually live on living hosts and
according to their need they adopt saprophytic mode of life for some time are called the
facultative saprophytes, e.g., Taphrina deformans and some smuts.
Some parasitic fungi usually pass saprophytic mode of life, but under certain conditions they
parasitize some suitable host and are called the facultative parasites, e.g., Fusarium, Pythium,
etc.

The parasitic fungi absorb their food from the hosts in different ways. The fungus having the
mycelium outside the host is called the ectoparasite, e.g., Erysiphe, whereas the fungus having
the mycelium embedded in the host tissue is called the endoparasite. In the former type certain
cushion-like appressoria develop on the surface of the host and from each appressorium a peg-
like structure develops which penetrates the host epidermal cell giving rise to a branched or
unbranched absorbing organ called the haustorium.
The haustoria may also develop from the mycelium of endoparasites. The haustoria vary in their
shapes. They may be small, rounded, and button-like as in Albugo, branched and convolute as
in Peronospora and highly branched as in Erysiphe.
In the case of rusts and mildews the mycelium remains confined in the pustules and not in the
whole body of the plant. This type of fungus is called the localized fungus. When the mycerlium
prevails in the whole of the plant it is said to be systemic fungus, e.g., smuts. When the
mycelium is confined to the intercellular spaces it is called intercellular mycelium and in other
cases the mycelium penetrates the host tissue and said to be intracellular. Usually the former
bears haustoria and the latter does not.

(c) Symbionts:
Some fungi live in close association of other higher plants where they are mutually beneficial to
each other. Such relationship is called the ‘symbiosis’ and the participants the ‘symbionts’. The
most striking examples are the lichens and mycorrhiza. The lichens are the resultants of the
symbiotic association of algae and fungi.
Here, both live together and are beneficial to each other. The algal partner synthesizes the
organic food and the fungal partner is responsible for the absorption of inorganic nutrients and
water. Certain fungi develop in the roots of higher plants and the mycorrhiza are developed.
Here the fungi absorb their food from the roots and in response are beneficial to the plants. The
mycorrhiza may be external or internal. The external mycorrhiza also called the ectophytic
mycorrhiza are confined to the outer region of the roots whereas the internal mycorrhiza are
found deeply in the root cells.
It is to be remembered that in all the cases whether they may be saprophytes, parasites or
symbionts, the food is absorbed in the form of solution by cell walls, rhizoids and haustoria.
The hyphal cell walls are permeable and the plasma membranes lining to the cell walls are
semipermeable. The osmotic pressure of the hyphal cells is higher than that of the host cells
and thus the food materials are absorbed from the substratum and host cell. The fungi secrete
some enzymes which dissolve the cellulose walls of the host, hydrolyse the starch and make it
available to the fungus.

Many elements such as hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, small amounts of potassium, phosphorus
and sulphur with the traces of magnesium and iron are required for the growth and other
metabolic activities of the fungi. The carbon is always required in its organic form for growth.
When fungi are cultured in the laboratory on synthetic media, the necessary elements may be
supplied in the following way: C is usually supplied in the form of a carbohydrate, such as
glucose or maltose sucrose and soluble starch are utilized by many fungi also. N may be
supplied in the form of NH4 salt or as amino acids.
Many fungi can utilize NO3 salts. Each fungus has its own specific requirements which may be
known experimentally. Most fungi are able to synthesize the vitamins they need. However,
several fungi may need thiamine or biotin or both these substances are generally added to
synthetic media.
(d) Predacious fungi:
There are many animal trapping fungi which have developed ingenious mechanisms for
capturing small animals such as eellworms, rotifers or protozoa which they use for food. The
most interesting of these mechanisms is that which utilizes a rapidly constricting ring around a
nematode which holds it captive while the hyphae sink haustoria into the body of the victim.
Several species of fungi in the genera Arthrobotrys, Dactylella and Dactylaria employ this
method. In the presence of an eelworm population, the hyphae of the fungi produce loops which
are stimulated to swell rapidly and close the opening when an eelworm passing through the loop
rules against its inner surface.
It is assumed that the amount of osmotically active material in the ring cells increases greatly as
a result of stimulation and causes water to enter the cells increasing their turgor pressure. The
ring cells swell rapidly and the ring closes around the eelworm which is thus held tightly in the
trap. Some predacious fungi secrete a sticky substance on the surface of their hyphae to which
a passing small animal adheres. Haustorium like hyphae then grow into the body of the animal
and absorb food. The animals ultimately die.