These questions are examples of the type of questions that will be asked on exams. I cannot promise that they will be the exact questions, but they will be similar. On exams, there will be some matching, some questions requiring diagrams with labels, some questions about the nuclear condition of fungi (haploid, diploid or dikaryotic; n, 2n or n+n), some short answer questions and some requiring longer answers. I am particularly fond of questions that combine information from several different fungi. While you are studying, you might think of how several of these questions could be combined into one question.
IntroductionIt is important to keep the big picture in mind. How many years ago did life begin on earth? How many years ago did the radiation of higher eukaryotic groups occur? How many years did the earth exist without life-as-we-know-it?
In what other type of life was the first fossil fungus found? What was the likely ecological role of this fungus?
In the big radiation of higher eukaryotes what groups were involved?
From the perspective of fungi, what large group is their nearest relative?
Of the three most visible eukaryotic groups, animals, plants and fungi, which ones can convert radiant energy into chemical energy? Can any prokaryotic groups accomplish this feat?
There are three ways that fungi obtain chemical energy from the biosphere; what are they? What is the ultimate source of all of this chemical energy?
When you see a mushroom, you are seeing only one of three important parts of the whole fungus. What are the other two parts?
Describe the form of the basic unit of most fungal vegetative thalli. Where does growth occur?
How does a fungus obtain food from the substrate? What is exported and what is imported?
How is fungal nutrition similar to animal nutrition?
How do fungi move long distances?
Draw a fungal life cycle with all of the options.
How do fungal life cycles compare to the human life cycle?
MyxomycotaHow are the Myxomycota related to the kingdom Fungi?
How does the thallus of a myxomycete compare to that of a hyphal fungus?
How does a myxomycete obtain food?
Contrast nuclear and cell divison of myxamoebae with that of plasmodia.
What morphological interconversions is a myxamoeba capable of?
What are three ways that a stressed myxomycete can use to avoid harsh environments.
Where does meiosis occur in the myxomycete life cycle? What happens to the meiotic nuclei?
What are the two types of sporangial development in myxomycetes and how do they differ? What other life-cycle feathres are correlated with this difference?
What is the genetic basis of mating compatibility in myxomycetes?
Would any of the myxamoebae arising from spores from one sporangium be able to mate with each other? If so, from the persepective of one myxamoeba what percentage of the other myxamoebae would be potential partners?
From the perspective of one myxoamoeba, what percentage of myxamoebae from other plasmodia would be potential partners?
Describe the spore color, abundance and morphology of capillitium, and durability of peridium for members of the Physarales, Stemonitales, Trichiales and Liciales that you have seen.
What differences in development result in either sporangia, plasmodiocarps and athelia?
Why is Physarum a model system for cell biology? That is, what features of its biology interest cell biologists and what features of its form make it easy to work with in the lab. Why aren’t other myxomycetes used in cell biology research?
Dictyosteliomycota, Arcasiomycota and ProtostelidsOf the Acrasids, Dictyostelids and Protostelids the Protostelids were the last to be discovered (in 1960). Why?
If each amoeba makes just one spore in Protostelium, how can this organism increase in number?
Does Protostelium have any flagella in its life cycle?
Both Protostelium and Acrasis have a simple life cycle with amoeba and spores alternating through time, and with each amoeba making at most one spore. What difference in their life cycles allows Acrasis to make a multi-spored fruiting body?
How do the stalk and spore cells of Acrasis differ? How are they the same?
Dictyostelium is another example of an organism where each amoeba makes at most one spore, but the sporangia have many spores. What does Dictyostelium do that Protostelium does not do, and Acrasis only partly does, to achieve this type of life cycle?
How do Dictyostelium amoeba feed? What do they feed on?
What happens to Dictyostelium amoebae when the food runs out?
How do Dictyostelium amoebae synchronize their behavior?
What is the role of cyclic AMP (first known as acrasin) in the life cycle of Dictyostelium discoideum?
What changes occur in Dictyostelium amoebae upon perceiving cAMP? How do these changes allow them to cooperate?
Do Dictyostelium amoebae fuse to form a plasmodium?
What environmental signals are perceived by Dicytostelium slugs?
In both Acrasis and Dictyostelium, some individual amoebae sacrifice themselves for other amoebae. Is this a common type of organismal behavior? What feature of the genetics of these amoebae may explain this behavior?
What evidence is there that Dictyostelium is a popular research organism?
How many species of fungi have been described? How many species do mycologists believe exist in nature? Why is there a discrepency?
What feature of the life cycle of Acytostelium is commemorated by its name? How does this feature differ from Dictyostelium. Does the name Dictyostelium tell you anything?
What can the prestalk and prespore cells of Polysphondylium do that cannot be done by those of Dictyostelium?
In Dicytostelium, sex results in the fusion of two nuclei, but many cells seem to be involved. What happens to the extra cells? What might they do for the zygote?
We didn't say much about Ceratiomyxa (but your textbook does). What evidence could you use to place this fungus in the Myxomycota? What evidence is there that it could be closely related to the Protostelids?
Labyrinthulomycota and PlasmodiophoromycotaDraw a spindle cell of Labyrinthula paying particular attention to the plasma membranes. Now add a second spindle cell to your drawing and show how they interact. What is the name for the cell wall modification that permits membrane evagination in Labyrinthula. What does this modification do with regard to cell organelles?
What plant disease does Labyrinthula cause?
What molecules are responsible for the pulsing of Physarum plasmodia and the motility of Labyrinthula spindle cells?
After Labyrinthula cells congregate, they can follow two developmental pathways. Describe these pathways.
Draw a Labyrinthyula zoospore, particularly the flagella and cell surface.
What features of Thraustochytrium suggest a close evolutionary relationship with Labyrinthula? Do these features suggest a close relationship with other members of the Myxomycota?
What organ does Thraustochytrium use for acquiring food? Through what organelle does this organism obtain food?
Plasmodiophora causes plant cells to enlarge, how does it do this? What is the term for abnormally enlarged cells and organs?
Describe how the zoospore cyst of Plasmodiophora enters a plant cell. A drawing with labels will help this answer.
Why is the thallus of Plasmodiophora called a plasmodium?
How could you tell if you were looking at a primary or secondary plasmodium of Plasmodiophora?
What is the nuclear condition (n, n+n or 2n) of secondary plasmodia of Plasmodiophora? How about the resting spores?
According to the modern interpretation of the Plasmodiophora life cycle, the infecting amoebae can develop along two lines. What type of reproductive structure arises from each developmental line?
ChytridiomycotaSpecies of Chytridiomycota account for approximately what percentage of described fungal species?
Give four pieces of evidence that chytrids are part of the kingdom Fungi.
What feature of the chytrid life cycle caused biologists to consider the chytrids to be protozooa?
What three ways do chytrids earn a living?
One order of chytrids is symbiotic. What is the other partner in this symbiosis? What special environment do these chytrids require? What gas is toxic to these chytrids? What common eukaryotic organelle is missing from this chytrid?
Draw and label the asexual cycle of chytrids. Where in the life cycle does the number of cells increase?
Part of the chytrid life cycle relies on single cells without walls. What are these cells called? When do they get walls?
We discussed three types of organelle organization within chytrid zoospores. What are the diagnostic features of the Spizellomyces type of zoospore? What are the diagnostic features of the Chytridium type of zoospore? What are the diagnostic features of the Blastocladiales type of zoospore?
How does the zoospore of Rhizidiomyces differ from that of Rhizophydium?
How is the Neocallimastix type of zoospore unlike that of any other chytrid?
When zoospores exit the zoosporangium, they pass through an opening. The opening may be simple, have an operculum or a discharge net. How are these different structures formed?
A zoospore of the Chytridiomycota is a power plant moving a nucleus. Using labeled diagrams, tell how the power plant works by tracing the flow of energy from the fuel to the propulsion system.
Olpidium has no rhizoids, but Chytridium does. Why might Olpidium be able to do without something that Chytridium always has?
Draw a holocarpic and a eucarpic thallus, label the important features.
In epibiotic thalli, the nucleus stays in the enlarging zoospore cyst. What happens to the nucleus in endobiotic thalli?
What is "Big vein" and what fungus contributes to its spread?
For each of these terms, give an example of a chytrid that has one: operculum, discharge net, many discharge papilla.
When Chytridium (=Chytriomyces) mates, how do the nuclei reach each other? What is the term for this type of mating?
When Rhizophydium mates, how do the two partners fuse? What is the term for this type of mating?
What type of sporangium usually results from sexual reproduction in chytrids? What type of nuclear division is associated with its germination?
Synchytrium endobioticum causes what disease of potato?
How can fungi like Synchytrium manipulate the form of their host plants? What happens to the plant cells in terms of growth and division?
What can happen to the contents of rhizoids just before zoospore formation?
How are rhizoids and hyphae similar? How are they different?
Give two examples where nuclei are found in rhizoids? In one of these examples, the name for the rhizoids has been changed to acknowledge the presence of nuclei; what is this name?
In Allomyces macrogynus, can you distinguish a young haploid thallus from a young diploid thallus? If so, what features do you use? Can you distinguish old thalli? Again, if so, what features do you use?
Can you distinguish zoosporangia from resistant sporangia? How?
Can you distinguish mitospores from meiospores? How?
Can you distinguish male and female gametes? How?
What is sirenin? What bio-assay was used to purify sirenin? What does sirenin do?
Describe the swimming patterns of Allomyces male gametes in the absence of and in the presence of mature female gametes. How do the male gametes note the presence of the females?
Coelomomyces has a euallomyces life cycle, except for one missing part. What part is missing? Why would it be wonderful to find a Coelomomyces species with the missing part?
Coelomomyces in an ususual fungal parasite because it requires two hosts to complete its life cycle. What are these hosts and what parts of the Coelomomyces life cycle are found in each?
Blastocladiella emersonii has what type of Allomyces life cycle? How can the environment be manipulated to have B. emersonii make resistant sporangia or zoosporangia?
What is the difference between zoospores of B. emersonii made from zoosporangia and those made from resistant sporangia? What cell cycle process must account for the difference?
Diagram the life cycle of Blastocladiella variabilis and tell why it would make a good model organism. Why can’t you read about it in Nature or Science every week, as you can for yeast?
Catenaria anguililae, a mosquite parasite in nature, can be cultured in the lab. For a chytrid, it has an unusual thallus; please describe it. Its life cycle is similar to one of the three life cycles seen in Allomyces. Which one?
Why do mycologists think that Basidiobolus ranarum is a member of the Chytridiomycota? What other group of fungi has been the traditional home of Basidiobolus?
What is Batrachochytrium and why do herpetologists care about it?