Microbiology Demystified

• Basidiomycota: Also called club fungus, basidiomycota includes mush-
  rooms, toadstools, smuts, and rusts. Sexually produced basidiosporesare
  formed externally on a base pedestal, producing a club-shaped structure
  called a basidium (basidia, plural). Basidia can be found on visible fruit-
  ing bodies called basidiocarps, which are positioned on stalks. A mush-
  room is a basidiocarp. Some mushrooms, such as Amanita,produce toxins
  and are poisonous to humans, while others are very nutritious.


• Deuteromycota: Deutermycota, also known as fungi imperfecti, have no
  sexual reproduction (or none that can be observed). They cause pneumo-
  cystiswhich infects people who have a compromised immune system.
  Examples are:
  
  
  • Penicillium notatum, which produces penicillin.
    •Candida albicans, which causes vaginal yeast infections in humas.
  
  
  
  

FUNGUS NUTRITION

Fungi receive nutrients by absorptive nutrition (chemoheterotrophic), which is
somewhat similar to how bacteria obtain nutrients. Fungi team up with bacteria
to break down organic molecules and are the principal decomposers on earth.
Fungi can metabolize complex carbohydrates, such as the lignin in wood.
Fungi can decompose substances that have very little moisture and substances
that live in an environment with a pH of 5. Almost all molds are aerobic and
most yeasts are facultative anaerobes.

Algae

Algae are very simple unicellular or multicellular eukaryotic organisms that
obtain energy from sunlight (photoautotrophs). They live in various water envi-
ronments (oceans and ponds) on moist rocks and trees, and in soil.

REPRODUCTION OF ALGAE

Sexual reproduction occurs in most species of algae. In these species the algae
reproduce asexually for generations until there is a change in environmental
conditions; then the algae reproduce sexually. Other types of algae alternate in

CHAPTER 11 The Eukar yotes^171