FUNGI

Prepared by
Elina Shrestha
M.Sc.MM
Pokhara University 1
 Introduction
• Mycology is a specialized discipline in the field of biology
concerned with the study of fungi, including their taxonomy,
environmental impact, and genetic and biochemical
properties.
• Fungi are saprophytic and parasitic eukaryotic microorganism,
but they are also symbiotic in nature.
• They are place in a separate kingdom called Kingdom Fungi.
• They are multicellular with the exception of yeast which are
unicellular.

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• Fungi except yeast have filamentous body structure. These
thread like structures are called hyphae. Hyphae may be
septate or nonseptate.
• The tangled mass or network of hyphae is called mycelium.
Fungi which form mycelia are called molds.
• Several systemic fungal pathogens exhibit dimorphic form
(yeast form in host tissue and invitro at 37°C on enriched
media and hyphal (mycelial) form in vitro at 25°C).
Examples: Histoplasma capsulatum, Sporothrix schenckii,
Blastomyces dermatitidis, Coccidioides immitis,
Paracoccidioides brasiliensis.

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• In a growing colony of filamentous fungus, the mycelium
can be divided into the
1. Vegetative Mycelium (Substrate hyphae)
Hyphae that penetrate the supporting medium and
absorb nutrients are the vegetative or substrate hyphae.
2. Aerial Hyphae
In contrast, aerial hyphae project above the surface of
the mycelium and usually bear the reproductive
structures of the mold.

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Habitat

• Fungi are widely distributed in air, dust, fomites and even

among as normal microbiota flora in the human body of
the estimated 100,000 fungal spp, only about 300 have
been linked to disease in Nepal.

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 History
• Historically the fungi were regarded as relatively insignificant
causes of infection. However, in the early to mid twentieth
century, these microorganism began to recognized as
important cause of disease, particularly because of changes in
patient profiles and this trend continues today.
• Because of the endemic systemic mycoses, which may cause
disease in healthy host, a number of fungal species normally
found in the environment have been recognized as important
cause of human disease, particularly in immunocompromised
host.

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General feature of the fungi
Fungi are composed of a vast array of organisms that are unique
compared with plants and animals. Despite their great variation
in morphologic features, most fungi share the following
characteristics:
• Chitin in the cell wall
• Ergosterol in the cell membrane
• Reproduction by means of spores, produced asexually or
sexually
• Lack of chlorophyll.
• Saprophytic nature (derive nutrition from organic
materials)
• Lack of susceptibility to antibacterial antibiotics 10
 Beneficial effects of fungi

1. They are essential in breaking down and recycling organic

matter.
2. Some fungi greatly enhance our quality of life by contributing to
the production of food and spirits.
3. Other fungi have served medicine by providing useful bioactive
secondary metabolites such as antibiotics (e.g., penicillin) and
immunosuppressive drugs (e.g., cyclosporine).
4. Fungi have been exploited by geneticists and molecular
biologists as model systems for the investgation of a variety of
eukaryotic processes.
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 Harmful effects

• It has been stated that in the USA, fungus

infections cause as many fatalities today as
whooping cough, diphtheria, scarlet fever,
typhoid, dysentery and malaria put together.

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 Classification
• On the basis of morphology
• On the basis of reproduction
• On the basis of clinical manifestation

Morphologically on the basis of production of colonies

formed clinically important fungi are classified into two groups
• Yeast
• Molds

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1. Yeast
• Form smooth, creamy, opaque round colonies
• Unicellular
• Reproduction is typically by an asexual process called
budding in which a cell develop a protuberance which
enlarges and eventually separate from parent cell.
• On the basis cellular structure yeast are divided into:
– Oval or round cell that reproduce by budding
» Example: cryptococcus neoformans
– Some yeast produces chain of elongated budding
cells called pseudo hyphae
» Example: candida albicans

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2. Molds
– Also called filamentous fungi.
– Produce fluffy, cottony, wooly or powdery colonies.
– Multicellular and are organized on the basis of presence of
hyphae into septate or aseptate.

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 Fungi

Yeast Molds
• without pseudohyphae (cryptococcus neoformans)
• With pseudohyphae ( candida spp)

Aseptate Septate (phycomycetes)

on the basis of reproductive str.
on the basis of
Presence of flagella
Ascomyctes Basidiomycete
Deuteromycetes
Mastigomycetes ( Penicillium) (mushroom) (fungi imperfectii)
(Eg: chytridiomycetes,
Oomycetes) Zygomycetes
(Eg: Rhizopus, Mucor)
Fig: Classification of fungi on the basis of morphology 16
 On the basis of reproduction
1. Zygomycota
• Produce aseptate hyphae
• Reproduce asexually by the production of
sporangiospores and sexual reproduction by zygospores.

• Some of the clinically important genera in this phylum are

Rhizopus, Mucor, Rhizomucor, Absidia, and
Cunninghamella.

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2. Ascomycota
• Produce true septate hyphae with simple septal pores,
cytoplasmic and nuclear migration not inhibited.
• Reproduce asexually by the formation of conidia (asexual
spores) and sexually by the production of ascospores.
• Examples : H. capsulatum, Penicillium, Aspergillus

Fig: Penicillium: Asexual

reproduction

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3. Basidiomycota

• Produce septate hyphae with complex septal pores

called dolipores which allow cytoplasmic but not
nuclear migration.

• Reproduce sexually through the formation of

basidiospores on a specialized structure called the
basidium.

• This group includes smuts, rusts, mushrooms.

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 4. Deuteromycetes or Fungi imperfectii

• Group of fungi whose sexual phases are not

identified.
• Grow as molds as well as yeasts.
• Asexual stage – conidia
• e.g. Candida, Cryptococcus

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• CLINICAL CLASSIFICATION OF THE FUNGI

– Clinically human fungal diseases (mycoses) are

classified by the location on or in the body where the
infection occurs.

• Cutaneous mycoses
• Subcutaneous mycoses
• Systemic mycoses
• Opportunistic mycoses

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• Cutaneous mycoses
– The superficial, or cutaneous, mycoses are fungal
infections that involve the hair, skin, or nails without
direct invasion of the deeper tissue.
– The fungi in this category include Epidermophyton spp,
Microsporum spp, Trichophyton spp.
• Subcutaneous mycoses
– Infections confined to the subcutaneous tissue without
dissemination to distant sites.
– Example of subcutaneous infective agents include
Actinomadura madurae, Cladosporium, Phialophora,
Sporothrix schenckii.

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• Systemic mycoses
– widely disseminated and involve any organ system.
– Primarily involve the lungs
– agents of systemic fungal infections include the genera
Blastomyces dermatitidis, Coccidioides immitis,
Histoplasma capsulatum, and Paracoccidioides
brasiliensis.
• Opportunistic mycoses
– Most human fungal infection are nosocomial or
opportunistic.
– Most commonly encountered genera in this group are
Aspergillus, Candida, and Cryptococcus, Absidia
corymbifera.
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 Reproduction

• Fungi reproduce sexually and/or asexually.

• In both type of reproduction, fungi produce spores that
disperse from the parent organism by either floating on
the wind or hitching a ride on an animal. 
• Some of the important methods of reproduction in Fungi
are as follows:
1. Vegetative Reproduction
2. Asexual Reproduction
3. Sexual Reproduction 25
1. Vegetative reproduction

– Vegetative reproduction occurs by:

a) Fragmentation
– In this process mycelium breaks into two or more
fragments either accidentally or due to some external
force.

– Each fragments grows into new mycelium under

favourable conditions.

– Fragmentation is common in filamentous fungi such as

Rhizopus and Aspergillus.
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b) Binary fission
• In binary fission a mature cell elongates and its nucleus
divides into two daughter nuclei.
• The daughter nuclei separates, cleaves cytoplasm
centripetally in the middle till it divides parent
protoplasm into two daughter protoplasm.
• A double cross wall is deposited in the middle to form
two daughter cell.
• Ultimately the middle layer of double cross wall
degenerates and daughter cells are separated.
• Examples: Saccharomyces pobbe, Psygosaccharomyces

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Fig: Vegetative reproduction of fungi by fission

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c) Budding
• The cell wall bulge out and softens in the area.
• The protoplasm also bulge out in this region as small
protuberance.
• As the bud enlarges, it separates and leads
independent life.
• Some time, bud starts reproducing while still
attached with mother cell. This gives branching
appearance.
• Examples: yeast

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2. Asexual Reproduction
– The asexual reproduction takes place by means of
spores on or in specialized structure.
– Fungal spores are metabolically dormant, protected
cells, released by the mycelium in enormous numbers.
– Fungi produces two major types of asexual spores:
1. Sporangiospores
• Endogenous: formed and contained within a
sporangium.
2. Conidia
• Exogenous: formed at the tip of supporting hyphae
called conidiophores.
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Fig: Asexual sporulation by mitosis

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Fig: Sexual Sporulation by meiosis, relatively rare compared to
asexual sporulation

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 Sexual reproduction:
• Involve fusion of gametes (sex cells), or hyphae.
• Fungal sex organs are called gametangia. The male gametangia
are called antheridia and the female ones ascogonia.
• The fungus may be homothallic, i.e. the fusing gametes come
from the same Mycelium or may be heterothallic, i.e. the fusing
gametes come from different strains of mycelia.
• In fungi, sexual reproduction involves the following three
phases:
1. Plasmogamy
2. Karyogamy
3. Meiosis

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1. Plasmogamy
– It is the union of protoplasts of reproductive hyphae or cells,
(one from the male and the other from the female ) to bring
about the nuclei close together as a pair. However, the two
nuclei do not fuse with each other. Such a cell is called a
dikaryon.
2. Karyogamy
– The fusion of the two nuclei which takes place in the next phase
is called karyogamy.
– The cell formed by karyogamy is called the zygote.
– In most fungi the zygote is the only cell in the entire life cycle
that is diploid. 

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3. Meiosis
– Karyogamy is sooner or later followed by meiosis and
production of meiotic spores (meiospores)occur.

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 Life cycle of yeast
• Guilliermond (1940) has recognized three main
types of life cycles in the yeast. These life cycles are
known as
1. Haplobiontic,
2. Diplobiontic and
3. Haplo- diplobiontic

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1. Haplobiontic type
• This type of life cycle is found in Schizosaccharomyces
octosporus and some other yeasts. In these yeasts the
vegetaive stage is predominantly haploid stage is very
short. The diploid stage is represented by the zygote
cell only which undergoes meiosis immediately after
nuclear fusion.
• Here each somatic cell acts as a potential
gametangium. During sexual union two cells fuse
(plasmogamy) and this is followed by the fusion of the
two nuclei (karyogamy).
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2. Diplobiontic type:
• This type of life-cycle is found in Saccharomycodes
ludwigii and some other yeasts. In these yeasts the
vegetative stage is predominantly diploid and the
haploid stage is very short. In this type the
ascospores are not liberated from the ascus but
they copulate within the ascus. The zygotes found
within the ascus bud out diplobiontic vegetative
cells.

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3.  Haplo-diplobiontic type:
• This type of life cycle is found in Saccharomyces
cerevisiae and some other yeasts. In these yeasts
the vegetative cells consist of both haploid and
diploid phases. The haploid cells copulate and form
a dipolid cell (zygote). The zygote nucleus divides
thrice of which the first division is meiotic one,
producing eight nuclei which metamorphose into
eight ascospores. Only the diploid cells produce the
ascospores which give rise to haploid vegetative
cells by budding.

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 Life Cycle of Mold
• There are four main phases for the life cycle of mold. When the
appropriate conditions for growth exist: presence of moisture,
nutrients, temperature, etc, mold begins to reproduce via it’s life
cycle.
• Hyphal Growth: Hyphae are the thread-like filamentous cells that
release enzymes which degrade and absorb nutrients from a
substrate (ie. organic debris, cellulose, wood, almost any carbon
containing material including human skin). Upon obtaining it’s
nutrition, the hyphae will grow into a mycelium, the main body of the
fungus which is also the visible portion.
• Spore Formation: Spores form on the ends of some hyphael cells. The
formation of spores is dependent on a variety of environmental
factors including light, oxygen levels, temperature, and nutrient
availability.
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• Spore Dispersal: After the spores are formed, they are
released into the air and carried elsewhere to begin the
process of germination and growth all over again. Mold
spores are highly resistant and durable. They can remain
dormant for years in even hot and dry environments.
• Spore Germination: Once the spore is dispersed to a new
area and when the appropriate conditions exist, moisture
and nutrient availability, the spore will begin to germinate
into a new hyphal cell. The life cycle of mold then begins
again.
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