“Obtaining Food” Discovery Education Video Transcript
Because hyphae filaments are used to obtain food they are the key to how fungi act as decomposers. As hyphae invade a food source they secrete strong acids and powerful digestive enzymes, As a result large molecules are broken down into smaller molecules that fungi can use. For example the cellulose molecules in woodier broken down into smaller glucose molecules that fungi can absorb and use for energy. This process of external digestion Requires that the nutrients produced be dissolved in watering order to be absorbed by the hyphae and this is why fungi only thrive in moist environments. As fungi digest a dead tree, rich compost is created that revitalizes the soil for growing plants. Fungi such as these that obtain nourishment from nonliving organic materials are known as saprophytes. In contrast fungal parasites Such as those attacking this peach tree are feeding off a living organism causing its leaves to wither and its fruit to be destroyed. The reproductive spores of parasitic fungi are carried on the bodies of insects and often find their way into the vascular systems that plants use to take in water. If the parasitic hyphae threads Grow into the plant's main vascular channels and plug them up, the plant will die from lack of water. Parasitic fungi even attack human cells. Spores spread through the air, irritate, and sometimes attack the lungs, skin, and even bone tissue. A third group of fungi are the mutuality fungi. Most mutuality fungi are found in lichens like those seen here. In lichens they live in a close, mutually beneficial, relationship with other organisms, usually protest green algae from whom they obtain nourishment.