Mushrooms are unique living creatures. Their amazing diversity and ability to form symbiosis with a wide variety of animal and plant species provides them with the widest range. How do mushrooms differ from other living organisms and why do they stand out as an independent kingdom of the living world? Indeed, according to external signs, higher fungi resemble plants. And yeast, related to unicellular fungi, is in many ways similar to bacteria. So how are mushrooms different from plants and animals?
Classification in brief
All living things on our planet are divided by scientists into five kingdoms:
- Animal kingdom;
- plant kingdom;
- mushroom kingdom;
- Bacteria kingdom;
- Kingdom of Viruses.
How do mushrooms differ from representatives of other kingdoms and why are they placed in a separate category? Scientists know more than 100 thousand species of mushrooms. They, in turn, are classified into three departments:
- real mushrooms;
- oomycetes;
- lichens.
Studying the question of how mushrooms differ from plants and animals,deals with the science of mycology.
The difference between mushrooms and plants
Mycelium of higher mushrooms occupies a significant surface. Many species live in symbiosis with tree roots, forming mycorrhiza. The outer part of the fungus - the fruiting body - bears the functions of reproduction.
And how are mushrooms different from plants? The answer lies primarily in the way mushrooms obtain their nutrients.
- Unlike plants, fungi lack chlorophyll - they are not capable of producing organic matter from inorganic matter. By type of nutrition, mushrooms, like animals, are heterotrophs. Among the fungi there are parasites that cause diseases of animals and plants. Such diseases are called mycoses. There are saprophytes that process dead organic matter - the remains of plants and animals. Of particular importance are xylophytes, which break down living and dead wood. Symbionts that benefit the "master" benefit from cooperation for themselves. There are even predatory mushrooms that live in the layer of the earth and feed on small soil worms.
- The metabolism of mushrooms is similar to that of an animal. Proteins, unlike vegetable proteins, are complete, and the end product of their decay is urea. When the dead fungus decomposes, the proteins are broken down to ptomains - cadaveric poison. Mushrooms get energy by splitting glucose, and plants get carbon dioxide. The metabolism contains lecithin and glycogen, which plants do not have.
- Poisons of mushrooms are similar in chemical structure to the poisons of animals (snakes), and notplants.
- The cell wall of fungi is well defined and consists of proteins and chitin, less often, like in plants, of cellulose.
So mushrooms only look like plants. There are much fewer fundamental differences between mushrooms and animals.
How mushrooms differ from animals
Still, mushrooms have something that makes them related to plants.
- Mushrooms absorb nutrients from their entire surface - they do not have a digestive apparatus.
- Like plants, fungi have a rigid cell wall - animal cells have a slightly different shell.
- Cell mitosis and new cell formation in fungi is similar to that in brown algae.
- Mushrooms cannot move on their own.
Another thing that fungi differ from animals and plants is that their cells can have two nuclei, and special formations - thalli - contain many nuclei. Neither in plants nor in animals is this observed - the cell always contains one nucleus.
Fungi and bacteria
What is the difference between fungi and bacteria? First of all, among bacteria there are both autotrophs and heterotrophs. Other differences:
- There is no nucleus in bacterial cells.
- Bacteria are exclusively single-celled organisms.
- Bacteria are microscopic and most fungi can be seen with the naked eye.
- Some types of bacteria are able to move independently with the help of flagella.
Another important factor that distinguishes mushrooms frombacteria - the development of living space. Despite the fact that mold (which is nothing more than the mycelium of a fungus) is recognized by scientists as one of the most tenacious organisms, bacteria remain leaders in capturing habitat. The range of temperature and other indicators of the external environment in bacteria is immeasurably higher than in all other living beings.
What is the difference between mushrooms and lichens
Department of lichens is a nomenclature unit of the fungi kingdom. The difference between fungi and lichens is that the latter are nothing more than a symbiosis of algae and fungus. The intertwining threads of the mycelium form the body of the lichen, and blue-green or green algae live between the threads - unicellular. Lichen lives wherever there is light. The mycelium of the fungus absorbs water and mineral elements from the environment, and algae receive carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and synthesize organic matter from these substances. Thus, the type of nutrition is autoheterotrophic, which gives the lichen undoubted advantages over both fungi and plants.
Scientists have not yet come to a consensus on the principle by which the interaction of the fungus and algae is built. According to one theory, we are talking about mutually beneficial cooperation. According to another version, lichen is a fungus that parasitizes algae. Due to the fact that the algae multiplies rapidly, its complete destruction does not occur. And in the third version, the interaction of the fungus and algae is presented as mutual parasitism, completely subject to the law of the struggle of opposites.
The uniqueness of mushrooms
Mushrooms are very diverse in structure and habitat. They bring a person both benefit and harm. The main purpose of mushrooms in the circulation of substances is the processing of dead organic matter, especially wood, and the formation of the soil layer.
Mushrooms produce a large number of biologically active substances and are the subject of technological developments in microbiology and biotechnology.
Mushroom reproduction occurs in a variety of ways. This is another way that mushrooms differ from plants and other living beings, which usually use 1-2 methods of reproduction. Mushrooms can reproduce:
- Vegetative - part of the mycelium, budding or special formations.
- Asexual - using spores (conidia or sporangia).
- Sexual - by fusion of two primary mycelium.
The classification of mushrooms within the kingdom is based on the method of reproduction.
Mushroom variety
The variety of forms and methods of reproduction and the process of nutrition - this is how mushrooms differ from other organisms. Hat mushrooms are the most famous among mushrooms, due to the fact that people use their fruit body for food. Protein in its usefulness is comparable to the meat of animals. There are more than 8000 species in the world, growing all over the globe. White fungus, raincoat and champignons are especially valued, among other things, they have medicinal properties.
Parasitic mushrooms cause significant damage to agriculturalactivities. Smut fungi cause diseases of grain plants, rust fungi look like brown spots, and tinder fungi settle on tree trunks. The lower unicellular fungus mukor damages food products, forming a white coating on them. In nature, this fungus plays a positive role, but it often causes spoilage of bread, vegetables and fruits.
Mushrooms of the genus Penicillum and Aspergillus are among the higher fungi, but act on food as destructively as mukor. In addition to the decomposition of the substrate, the mycelium releases mycotoxins that can cause poisoning in humans and animals. People also use this property for positive purposes: some types of mushrooms produce drugs - antibiotics, with which bacterial diseases are treated. Lower fungi cause numerous diseases of fruits and vegetables: late blight, "black leg", "potato cancer".
Yeast is also a fungus. These small, oval-shaped, multicellular organisms thrive in a sugar-rich environment.
With their help, people produce wine, beer and other alcoholic products, rich bread, they feed animals. Yeast parasites on plants lead to a disease called "powdery mildew", and in humans and animals they cause thrush.
Mushrooms have signs that make them related to animals and plants. In appearance, they are closer to plants, and in terms of metabolism and type of nutrition, they are closer to animals. Many unicellular fungiIn many ways, they are similar to bacteria, but they also have significant differences, primarily in the way they reproduce. So scientists rightly distinguish these amazing creatures in a separate kingdom - the kingdom of mushrooms.
