Kingdom Fungi

Fungi- Candida albicans 

 The organsims in Kingdom Fungi diverged from the animal kingdom probably some 0.6 billion years ago.  They originated as aquatic organism and evolved from opisthokonts, organisms that started as single celled spores and propelled themselves with a single posterior flagellum.

Fungi is eukaryotic with a vegetiative body that may be unicellular or composed of microscopic threads called hyphae.  The organsims are non-vascular as well as not motile.  Fungi have an alternation of generations.  Their cell walls composed mostly of chitin with a cytoplasmic ultrastructure.  Instead of cholesterol, fungal cell membranes have ergosterol.  The process of chitin biosynthesis occurs in fungi.

The organisms in Kingdom Fungi obtain their nutrients by absorption, in a process called chemoheterotrophic, feeding on preformed organic material.  Their food is stored as glycogen.  Saprophytic fungi secrete enzymes to break down dead organic matter in recycling.

Fungi organisms digest then ingest by producing exoenzymes (digestive enzymes that are secreted into the environment, where they digest the food into small molecules that can be absorbed and used by the fungus).  They have complete extracellular digestion.

Fungi have no hearts, but they do have a circulatory system made up of masses of connecting hyphae, which are long branching filamentous cells surrounded by tubular cell walls.   The hyphae grow at the tips and expand into the nutrients the fungi is decomposing as well as assist in nutrient exchange and in nutrient and water absorption.

Fungi have very small nuclei, with little repetitive DNA.  They reproduce by means of spores, usually wind-disseminate.  Both sexual and asexual spores may be produced, depending on the species and conditions. Tubule protein produces a different type of microtubules formed during nuclear division.  Mitosis is generally accomplished without dissolution of the nuclear envelope.

Examples of organisms found within Kingdom Fungi include many forms of mushrooms as well as other parasites.

Four phyla which belong to Kingdom Fungi include: Basidomycota, Ascomycota, Deutromycota, and Zygomycota. 

Fungi- Omphalotus nidiformis 

1. Volk, T. J. (2000). The kingdom fungi. Unpublished manuscript, Department of Biology, University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, WI. Retrieved from http://www.uwlax.edu/biology/volk/fungi3/sld001.htm
2. Major divisions of life. (1999). Retrieved from http://waynesword.palomar.edu/trmar99.htm
3. Classifications of organisms. (2006, September 8). Retrieved from http://faculty.southwest.tn.edu/rburkett/classification_of_organisms.htm