Biology Now, 2e

294 ■ CHAPTER 16 Plants, Fungi, and Protists

BIODIVERSITY

Basidiomycetes

(club fungi)

Zygomycetes

(molds)

Ascomycetes

(sac fungi)

Domain

Bacteria

Domain

Archaea

Kingdom

Protista

Kingdom

Fungi

Kingdom

Animalia

Common

ancestral

cell or

universal

ancestor

Kingdom

Plantae

Domain

Eukarya

Figure 16.9

Fungi are eukaryotic absorptive heterotrophs

Fungi must take their food from other organisms, and they do this in a unique way. Instead of ingesting their food, as most

heterotrophs do, fungi use chemicals to break down their food outside of their bodies and then absorb the nutrients.

Q1: What group of fungi most resembles the mushrooms you buy in a grocery store?

Q2: Are sac fungi more closely related to molds or to club fungi?

Q3: How do we know that fungi are eukaryotes rather than prokaryotes?

traded roots must be 5 years or older), out of

season, or poached from federal lands.

“As you would expect, species that are high

value and in high demand are the subject of

illegal trade,” says St. John. The illegal trade

of ginseng has even spawned a reality show on

the History television channel: Appalachian

Outlaws. To combat the criminal activity, some

states have taken to spraying ginseng plants on

state and federal lands with paint, so if a marked

plant shows up in a batch of ginseng to be

exported to China, authorities will know where

it came from. Those caught selling protected

plants face fines and jail time, and violating

CITES is a federal crime.

Truffle Trouble

The illegal wildlife trade is a problem not just

for animals and plants, but also for fungi, none

of which have been listed as CITES-protected

species so far. Fungi are absorptive heterotrophs:

they digest organic material outside the body

and absorb the breakdown products. The major-

ity of fungal species fall into three main groups:

zygomycetes, which contains many species

of molds; ascomycetes, a diverse group infor-

mally known as sac fungi; and the more famil-

iar basidiomycetes, or club fungi (Figure 16.9).

Each of these groups differs in—and is named

for—its unique reproductive structures.

Fungi have properties in common with both

plants and animals. Like plant cells, all fungal

cells have a protective cell wall that wraps around

the plasma membrane and encases the cell.

However, fungi are similar to animals in that they

store surplus food energy in the form of glycogen.

In 2012, two bandits broke through security

gates and stole an estimated $60,000 of fungi

from a locked warehouse. The loot was truffles, the

fruiting body of a particular group of ascomyce-

tes. Certain white European truffles can sell for as

much as $3,600 per pound, making them the most

expensive food in the world. That high price also

makes them a target for thieves, especially since