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The Fungus Among Us!! Those critters with guts.

© Neal Rolfe Chamberlain

The fungi are a different group of microorganisms. They come in all shapes and sizes. From the large mushrooms (a basket full of Morels) you would love to eat to the small single-celled organisms (yeast= second picture) in your refrigerator used for making bread rise. They, like viruses and bacteria, are all around us. They can be helpful and some can be harmful to us.

What are fungi? They aren't plants but they sure do act like plants. Fungi are different from plants in several ways. Plants use chloroplasts (a plant cell organelle) to make food for themselves from sunlight and carbon dioxide. Fungi need already formed foodstuffs. They are called heterotrophic meaning they are other (hetero) loving (trophic). In other words they like to eat what others have made. Sort of like the "Modern Little Red Hen's" friends. However, this is good because when plants and animals die someone has to get rid of the remains.

Fungi have long thin cells that are very similar thoughout the entire body of the fungus. Plants have many different types of cells that make up different plant parts like leaves, roots, stems, etc.

Lastly, fungi have a chitin containing cell wall rather than a cellulose containing cell wall as is seen in plants.

Now why did I say that fungi have guts? That is because these organisms are the first ones I have talked about that have organelles. Remember, viruses and bacteria are gutless. The fungi are one of the eukaryotic organisms microbiologists study.

However, microbiologists don't really study all fungi. We concentrate on the single-celled yeasts, and molds. Horticulturalists study the monster sized fungi like the mushrooms.

Did you say this is really a wimpy article and you want much more information than this? For more information go to Berkeley's fungus site. A great site for fungal images is Mykoweb. Mykoweb also has some great links. If you want a large list of fungal links go to WWW Virtual Library on fungi.

Next time: Those Freeloader Parasites!

Take Care and Think Microbiologically! For more articles on microbiology go to Suite101:Microbiology.

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