Introductory Mycology – Cell

Structures
 What are fungi?
• Eukaryotic, spore-bearing, heterotrophic
organisms that produce extracellular
enzymes and absorb their nutrition.
 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
 Fungal nuclei

•1--3 m diam
•3--40 chromosomes
•Up to 13--40 Mb (million base pairs) DNA
coding for 6,000 to 13,000 genes
•Intranuclear division--nuclear envelope remains
intact during mitosis (unlike plants and animals)
 Organism # bp   # genes

Escherichia coli  4,600,000 4288

Saccharomyces cerevisiae 13,000,000 5885

Caenorhabditis elegans ~100,000,000 ~14,000

Arabidopsis thaliana ~120,000,000 ~10,000

Drosophila melanogaster ~170,000,000 ~12,000

humans ~3,400,000,000 ~80,000

 Fungi as model
organisms
•Small genome relative to other eukaryotes
•Many fungal genes are homologous to those in
other eukaryotes
•Easy to grow, short life cycles
•Haploid genomes amenable to mutation
•Sexual stage for analysis of segregation and
recombination of genes; all products of meiosis can
be retrieved in haploid spores
•Asexual (clonal) reproduction
 Beadle and Tatum
Using the common bread
mold Neurospora crassa, in
1941 developed the classic
concept of “one gene, one
enzyme”
Awarded Nobel Prize in
1945
 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
funx in fatty acid degradation,
N metabolism
 Other organelles
• Mitochondria—flattened or plate-like
mitochondrial cristae in Fungi (similar to
animals)
• Golgi bodies—consist of a single, tubular
cisternal element (stacked, plate-like cisternae
in animals and plants)
• Other types:
– ribosomes, endoplasmic reticulum, vacuoles, lipid
bodies, glycogen storage particles, microbodies,
microtubules, vesicles
 Cell Wall
Chitin
• well defined
• chitin
1-4 n-acetyal glucosamine
 -glucans
polymers of glucose Cellulose
1-3 glucose
• cellulose in some
1-4 glucose

 1-3 glucan

chitin -glucans
 Fungal cell wall
composition
Structural components:
chitin microfibrils [ß(1-4)-linked polymer
of N-acetylglucosamine]
chitosan in Zygomycota [ß(1-4)-linked
polymer of glucosamine]
ß-linked glucans
Gel-like components:
Mannoproteins (form matrix throughout
wall
 Other cell wall
components
Antigenic glycoproteins, agglutinans, adhesions
—on cell wall surface
Melanins—dark brown to black pigments (confer
resistance to enzyme lysis, confer mechanical
strength and protect cells from UV light, solar
radiation and desiccation)
Plasma membrane—semi-permeable
•fungal specific organelles involved in cell wall growth
Spitzenkorper or vacuole
associated with growing hyphal tips in septate fungi
chitosome
microvesicles transporting chitin synthases to growing cell wall
 Nutrition
• Heterotrophic
• Secrete extracellular enzymes
• Absorptive nutrition
• Saprobes: decay dead organic matter
• pathogens: biotroph, necrotroph
• symbionts: parasites - commensals - mutualists
Spores - a minute propagative unit functioning as a seed, but
differing from it in that a spore does not contain a preformed
embryo

Fruiting body - any complex fungal structure that contains or

bears spores; a sporocarp
 Reproduction
• Sexual reproduction: spores meiotically derived
nuclei
• Homothallic (selfing)
• Heterothallic (outcrossing)
• Genetic mating system
– MAT loci
– 1 to hundreds of “sexes”
• Asexual reproduction
– Spores with mitotically derived nuclei
 Fungal Reproduction
• Many fungi have the
ability to reproduce by
asexual and sexual
means
 Asexual Reproduction in Fungi
• Fragmentation – hyphae simply break off.
• Budding – small outgrowth of hyphae pinches
off
• Formation of spores
– Sporangiospores: produced in sporangia (sac-like
structures) located on a sporangiophore.
– Conidiospores: produced at the tips of specialized
hyphae
 Fungal reproduction
• Anamorph= asexual stage
– Mitospore=spore formed via asexual
reproduction (mitosis), commonly called a
conidium or sporangiospore
• Teleomorph= sexual stage
– Meiospore=spore formed via sexual
reproduction (e.g., resulting from meiosis), type
of spore varies by phylum
 Kingdom Fungi
• Phyla:
– Zygomycota
• Form asexual spores called sporangiospores
• Meiosis occurs in zygospore
– Ascomycota (including Deuteromycetes)
• Form asexual spores called conidia
• Meiosis occurs in ascus
– Basidiomycota
• Meiosis occurs in basidium
 Fungal life cycles
• The vegetative thallus predominates in the life
cycle of a fungus
• The thallus may be haploid (1n), dikaryotic (n+n)
or diploid (2n) in different groups of fungi
• Ploidy of thallus is determined by the timing of
these events in the life cycle:
– Plasmogamy (cell fusion)
– Karyogamy (nuclear fusion)
– Meiosis (reduction division)
 Misc.
• Life cycle: simple to complex; wide variety
• Sporocarps: microscopic or macroscopic,
limited tissue differientiation
• Habitat: ubiquitous
• Studied by mycologists!!!!!!
Fungal life cycles
mitosis

Life cycle is
predominantly n n+n
haploid (n) Plasmogamy

n+n 2n
2n n Karyogamy
Meiosis
Fungal life cycles
mitosis

Life cycle is
predominantly n+n 2n
dikaryotic (n + n) Karyogamy

2n n
Meiosis
n n+n
Plasmogamy
Fungal life cycles
mitosis

Life cycle is
predominantly 2n n
diploid (2n) Meiosis

n n+n
Plasmogamy
n+n 2n
Karyogamy
 What are fungi?
• Eukaryotic, spore-bearing, heterotrophic
organisms that produce extracelluar
enzymes and absorb their nutrition.
 Fungi vs. "fungi"
• Based on the phenotypic definitions or traits
attributed to fungi, fungi do not comprise a
single monophyletic group of organisms

• more than one evolutionary origin

• not all "fungi" are members of the Kingdom

Fungi
 Some characters that separate the
the Kingdom Fungi from “protistan fungi”

Kingdom Fungi Protistan fungi

mitochondria: cristae flattened cristae tubular

motile cells: no motile cells or motile cells with anterior

posterior flagellum or lateral
heterokont flagella
cell wall
carbohydrate: glucans, chitin glucans, cellulose

lysine biosynthesis: alpha-aminoadepic acid (AAA) diaminopimelic (DAP)

storage compound glycogen mycolaminarins

sterols ergosterol fucosterol

Phyla: Chytridiomycota Oomycota

(emphasized Zygomycota Myxomycota
in class) Glomeromycota Dictyosteliomycota
Basidiomycota
Ascomycota
 General characteristics of the Phyla of the Kingdom Fungi
basal lineages

Zygomycota: (1000)
•generally coenocytic mycelium
•production of zygosporangia & zygospores
•no sporocarp production
Basidiomycota: (22500)
•septate mycelium
•clamp connections
•complex dolipore septa
•dikaryotic, haploid mycelium
•production of exospores (basidiospores) on a basidium
•production of complex sporocarps

Ascomycota: (35000)
•septate mycelium
•simple septa
•monokaryotic, haploid mycelium
•production of endospores (ascospores)
in an ascus
•production of complex sporocarps
•often dominant asexual reproduction
 Nomenclature

Amanita muscaria

Kingdom - Fungi
Phylum - Basidiomycota
Class - Hymenomycetes
Order - Agaricales
Family - Amanitaceae
Genus - Amanita
Species - A. muscaria
 :Medically important fungi are in four phyla

1. Ascomycota - Sexual reproduction in a sack called an ascus

with the production of ascopspores.( Aspergillus, Blastomyces
dermatidis, Histoplasma capsulatus)
2. Basidiomycota -Sexual reproduction in a sack called a
basidium with the production of basidiospores.( Cryptococcus
neoformans)
3. Zygomycota - sexual reproduction by gametes and asexual
reproduction with the formation of zygospores.( Rhizopus,
Mucor)
4. Deuteromycota(Fungi Imperfecti \Mitosporic Fungi) - no
recognizable form of sexual reproduction. Includes most
pathogenic fungi ( Sporothrix, Coccidioides immitis, Candida,
Pneumocystis).
Introductory Mycology- Cell Structure