Ancient earth had its fair share of dominant organisms for most of the history of life. Earth has been dominated by the microscopic bacteria and archaea, floating swimming and thriving in the ancient oceans that covered much of the globe. Through time organisms got larger and more complex. There was a time when organisms resembling insects were dominant, then fish and reptiles. We have all heard of the dinosaurs ruling earth followed by mammals evolving and now humans are clearly the dominant organism.

But there was a time in history you probably have never heard of, the age of the fungus. Around two hundred and fifty million years ago the earth was populated by ancient plants and animals. The Permian extinction changed all that, over 90% of life on Earth vanished the animals were decimated, and so are the plants. This included many millions and billions of trees leaving massive fields of the dead wood. And what thrives on dead wood and dead animal tissue? That’s right!

Fungi

, with few animals to tromp on them or eat them few plants to crowd them, and a massive deadwood buffet. The fungi after the Permian extinction were able to dominate the landscape.

Fungi:Growths, parasite is a gathering of eukaryotic non-phototrophic living beings with unbending cell dividers that incorporate mushrooms, molds, and yeasts.

Eukaryotic simply means that fungal cells have a nucleus like a plant and animal cells which distinguishes them from the bacteria and archaea.

Non-phototrophic means that they can’t use light for energy because they lack chlorophyll. Distinguishing them from plants, the cell walls of fungi are unique and that they contain large amounts of chitin, a structural component only found in the cell walls of fungi. The chitin makes the cell walls rigid. So, if fungi can’t perform photosynthesis what do they do for nutrients? Many

fungi

are saprophytes.

A Saprophyte is an organism that acquires nutrients from dead organic matter. This can be as common as seeing mushrooms growing on dead wood or mold, surviving in your refrigerator on last week’s takeout food. These fungi are actually very important to the health of the ecosystem, rapidly breaking down plant and animal material and returning it to a more usable form. Other

fungi

or parasites obtaining nutrients from a host species. Many common plant diseases are a result of a fungus siphoning nutrition from the plant. There are even some human diseases caused by fungi, but we’ll talk more in-depth about those later.

Numerous growths are normal contaminants of nourishments, most parasites replicate by discharging spores which are the safe conceptive rusting phase of an organism. These spores are able to survive the high temperatures and pH extremes often use for food preservation. Spores cannot be killed by freezing and some can even germinate resulting in actively growing

fungi

in your freezer.

There are three major types of fungus

Mushrooms: Mushrooms are probably the best-known fungi, usually found springing up on dead wood after cool, wet weather the mushroom is a common sight. Mushrooms generally consist of a stock with a large cap on top. This cap produces the spores that the mushroom releases in order to reproduce and colonize new environments. Many species of mushrooms are edible and delicious, but others can be very toxic. Since knowing the difference can take a very experienced eye, eating wild mushrooms is usually not a fantastic idea for the average person.

Molds: Like mushrooms molds are very recognizable, forget about that brick of cheddar cheese for too long, and suddenly it’s covered with green fuzz. That fuzz is why molds are often called filamentous fungi, and the filaments give it that fuzzy or fluffy appearance. Hyphae is a technical term for the long branching mold filaments.

Specialized Hyphae are often pigmented and reach up above the surface of the food source. These specialized Hyphae are responsible for producing and releasing the mold spores for reproduction and dispersal.

Yeasts:  To a microbiologist, yeasts are the most important fungi. Yeast is the common term for any unicellular fungus, the mushrooms and molds are all multicellular organisms. But yeast usually exists as only a single cell the cell is larger than a bacterial cell and contains a nucleus and other organelles. Yeast reproduced by budding, the new offspring cell begins as a small outgrowth of the membrane of the parent cell which gets larger before eventually pinching off. This process is asexual, resorting to two clones.

Some bees can reproduce sexually by simply fusing and creating a genetically recombined Zygo cell. The zygote contains DNA from both parents, yeast is unicellular yet eukaryotic, making them an important group of organisms for scientists. Humans are also eukaryotic so performing experiments on yeast is like investigating cellular processes or testing new drugs. This can provide data that can be applied to humans more accurately than work done on the more distantly related bacteria.

Saccharomycescerevisiae is the most common yeast used in research as a model organism for higher eukaryotes. In 1997 it gained the distinction of being the first eukaryote to have its genome sequenced. Saccharomyces cerevisiae might sound familiar to you for another reason, bakers and brewers have been using this yeast for many years to make bread and alcohol. As cerevisiae thrives by fermenting sugars, releasing carbon dioxide or ethanol in the process. The bakers and brewers begin experimenting on Saccharomyces in an attempt to optimize growth in production. This expanded the knowledge base and may have led the way to its use as a model organism in research.

We quickly specified that a few growths can cause ailment in people. Mycosis is the term given to any illness caused by the growth of a fungus, either on or inside the body. There are several important human diseases caused by fungi, but they usually infect the body surfaces or respiratory tract and are rarely serious for healthy individuals. It’s a good thing too because fungal infections can be difficult to eliminate. As a fellow eukaryote, most of the medications that will kill a fungus are also toxic to human cells, often producing nasty side effects.

Ringworm is a common fungal disease pass between infected individuals or picked up from contaminated surfaces. Trichophyton and Microsporum are the two most common genera of fungi that causes the characteristic ring-shaped Scaly lesions.

Candida Albicans is another pathogen that causes several diseases in humans, depending on where it is located. Candida and the vaginal canal can cause yeast infections characterized by itchiness and discharge. Candida in the mouth is called thrush, characterized by white spots that grow together forming a mass of crumbly white milk like curds.

Reviewing what we learned today

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