FUNGAL SPORES
COVENANT UNIVERSITY
Department of Biological Sciences
NAME: OBUEKWE CHUKWUEMEKA AZUBUIKE
MAT NO: 12CQ014230
PROGRAMME: MICROBIOLOGY COURSE: MCB 212 (MYCOLOGY)
TOPICS
A. DIVERSITY AND TYPES OF FUNGAL SPORES
B. SIGNIFICANCE OF FUNGAL SPORES
{DR OLASEINDE)
DIVERSITY AND TYPES OF FUNGAL SPORES
INTRODUCTION
The Fungi (Eumycota) are a diverse group of organisms that unlike plants and animals, obtain food by absorbing nutrients from an external source. The fossil record suggests that fungi were present 550 million years ago and may have evolved even earlier. Today thousands of different types of fungi grow on and absorb food from substances such as soil, wood, decaying organic matter, or living plants and other organisms. They range from tiny, single-celled organisms invisible to the naked eye to some of the largest living multicellular organisms. Other fungi are among the longest-lived organisms on Earth—some lichens, a living partnership of a fungus and an alga, are thought to be more than 4,500 years old.
REPRODUCTION IN FUNGI
The wide variety of fungi demonstrate many reproductive methods. In general, most fungi reproduce by making tiny spores. Fungi typically produce large numbers of spores. A giant puffball, for example, produces an estimated 7 trillion spores.
Fungi typically follow a reproductive cycle that involves the production of sexual spores. These spores contain one or more nuclei and are usually haploid—that is, their nuclei contain one set of chromosomes. When environmental conditions are favorable, the spores germinate and develop into a mycelium that produces fruiting bodies with enormous numbers of sexual spores, which repeat the reproductive cycle. Some fungi produce asexual spores directly from hyphae, which then germinate to produce additional mycelium. The mycelium spreads
Department of Biological Sciences
NAME: OBUEKWE CHUKWUEMEKA AZUBUIKE
MAT NO: 12CQ014230
PROGRAMME: MICROBIOLOGY COURSE: MCB 212 (MYCOLOGY)
TOPICS
A. DIVERSITY AND TYPES OF FUNGAL SPORES
B. SIGNIFICANCE OF FUNGAL SPORES
{DR OLASEINDE)
DIVERSITY AND TYPES OF FUNGAL SPORES
INTRODUCTION
The Fungi (Eumycota) are a diverse group of organisms that unlike plants and animals, obtain food by absorbing nutrients from an external source. The fossil record suggests that fungi were present 550 million years ago and may have evolved even earlier. Today thousands of different types of fungi grow on and absorb food from substances such as soil, wood, decaying organic matter, or living plants and other organisms. They range from tiny, single-celled organisms invisible to the naked eye to some of the largest living multicellular organisms. Other fungi are among the longest-lived organisms on Earth—some lichens, a living partnership of a fungus and an alga, are thought to be more than 4,500 years old.
REPRODUCTION IN FUNGI
The wide variety of fungi demonstrate many reproductive methods. In general, most fungi reproduce by making tiny spores. Fungi typically produce large numbers of spores. A giant puffball, for example, produces an estimated 7 trillion spores.
Fungi typically follow a reproductive cycle that involves the production of sexual spores. These spores contain one or more nuclei and are usually haploid—that is, their nuclei contain one set of chromosomes. When environmental conditions are favorable, the spores germinate and develop into a mycelium that produces fruiting bodies with enormous numbers of sexual spores, which repeat the reproductive cycle. Some fungi produce asexual spores directly from hyphae, which then germinate to produce additional mycelium. The mycelium spreads
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