Examples of diversity of plants, animals and fungi. Mushrooms in nature. The importance of mushrooms in nature and human life

Currently, there are about 100 thousand species of mushrooms on Earth, and according to some mycologists, their number could be much larger (up to 300 thousand). Fungi are distributed almost throughout the entire globe where organic matter is present, and the existence of heterotrophic organisms to which they belong is possible. The food for heterotrophs is ready-made organic matter. They live from polar regions to tropical regions, in mountainous regions and deserts, in various bodies of water.

The wide ecological amplitude characteristic of fungi is due to their morphological and functional diversity, as well as their multiple adaptations to various environmental influences that appeared in the process of evolution. Among the fungi there are both unicellular (yeast) or a number of primitive fungi, and in the overwhelming majority multicellular forms, often having a complex structure.

Mushrooms are everywhere around us, but sometimes we cannot see them without the help of optical instruments - a microscope or a magnifying glass. Most mushrooms are microscopic in size, so they cannot be detected with the naked eye. They are noticeable only as small turf or deposits of different colors, but more often you can only see the results of their life activity, such as pathological changes in animals or plants, destruction of materials, for example, during the activity of smut, rust, and powdery mildew fungi. Some types of fungi form molds of various colors on products and materials - green, gray, pink, black, etc. A group of fungi with microscopic sizes are called micromycetes.

Macromycetes are fungi with large fruiting bodies that are clearly visible to the naked eye. The fruiting bodies of such mushrooms have different shapes, textures and colors.

This group includes the well-known cap mushrooms:

a) boletus

b) white

c) fly agarics

d) russula, etc.

But cap mushrooms are only one of many types of macromycete fruiting bodies. In tree mushrooms you can often see a side cap without a stalk or a cap with a poorly developed stalk, like oyster mushrooms. The fruiting bodies of tinder fungi are very diverse. The sizes of fruiting bodies of both cap mushrooms and tinder fungi vary widely - from large ones up to 0.5-1 m in size to small ones (no more than 0.5-1 cm).

Sometimes in the forest there are forms that do not look like mushrooms at all. This is a branched tinder fungus (ram mushroom), which is a large bouquet of many capped mushrooms, a horned mushroom, which looks like a highly branched bush, and a coral-shaped blackberry, which looks like coral.

Huge diversity is observed among gasteromycetes, in particular among puffballs, common in the forests of the temperate zone, the fruiting bodies of which are covered with spines or scales, and in one of the largest mushrooms on Earth, Langermania gianta, the fruiting body can reach a diameter of 1 m. Gasteromycetes growing in tropics and subtropics. They are also called “flower mushrooms” for their great variety of appearance and brightness of color.

The entire diversity of mushrooms in nature is the diversity of those elements (fruiting bodies, etc.) on which spores intended for reproduction are formed. During the evolution of fungi, they have undergone the greatest changes due to an increase in the number of spores formed and improved methods of their distribution. Regarding the vegetative body of fungi, it should be noted that in most species that are distant in origin, the appearance of the mycelium is similar.

Related materials:

General characteristics of mushrooms Mushrooms are a separate kingdom of organisms, numbering over 80 thousand species, different in lifestyle, structure and appearance. It is believed that there are only one and a half million species of mushrooms on Earth. Currently, they are classified as a separate kingdom of eukaryotes. Unlike plants, fungi do not have chlorophyll and feed heterotrophically. On the other hand, fungi have a rigid cell wall, and most of them, like plants, are not able to move. The science that studies mushrooms is called mycology.

Edible mushrooms: White mushroom WHITE MUSHROOM (boletus) is a tubular mushroom of the order of agaricaceae. The cap is brown above, spongy below, white, greenish-yellow. The leg is thick, white with a mesh pattern. In deciduous, coniferous and mixed forests, mainly in the Northern Hemisphere. The best mushroom for drying

Edible mushrooms: Boletus grows from mid-summer to autumn in mixed forests and aspen forests in Eurasia and North America. Forms mycorrhiza with aspens and birches, less often with oak, poplar, pine, spruce. Many forms of this fungus are known, differing in the intensity of the color of the cap. The pulp of the boletus is white, at the break it first turns blue, then blackens. Boletus is a delicious edible mushroom, young fruiting bodies are especially good. Old fruiting bodies are usually always affected by dipteran larvae

Edible mushrooms: The abundance of proteins in mushrooms explains not only their common name - forest meat, but also the method of use: mushrooms are actually consumed instead of meat, and not as a replacement for vegetables. There are approximately two times fewer carbohydrates in mushrooms than proteins, and this is why they differ from green plants, which have the opposite ratio. An essential feature of the carbohydrate composition of macromycetes is the presence of specific fungal mycosis sugar and the complete absence of starch, instead of which glycogen accumulates in fungal cells. Edible mushrooms are rich in vitamins. Vitamins A, B1, B2, C, D and PP were found in their fruiting bodies. There is especially a lot of vitamin A in chanterelles and saffron milk caps; here it is represented by carotene (provitamin A), which gives these mushrooms their bright color. In terms of thiamine (vitamin B1) content, many mushrooms are not inferior to grain products. There is approximately as much nicotinic acid (vitamin PP) in mushrooms as in the liver. In terms of the presence of minerals, mushrooms are close to fruits. The composition of fungal cells includes salts of potassium, phosphorus (almost as much as in fish), sodium, calcium, and iron. Mushrooms contain zinc, copper, fluorine and other trace elements, although not higher than the norm usual for plant products. Studies of the biochemical composition of mushrooms have shown that many of them are sources of biologically active and medicinal substances. It is known that some mushrooms are used in folk medicine. To date, over 40 biologically active substances contained in mushrooms have been isolated.

Mushroom Foraging: Foraging is one of the oldest human activities. Nowadays, mushroom picking is called silent hunting; for most people it is a passionate hobby. This cannot be done without technical improvements. How are dogs and mushrooms related? The Pointer is a highly specialized hunting dog, bred in England about 200 years ago to hunt partridges. Her advantage is her superior instinct. In fact, it turns out that the pointer will find any game - from quail to fox and raccoon dog. And besides this, the pointer is excellent at finding mushrooms. It is worth showing the mushroom, saying Look!, and after a while the dog makes a stand over the find. Half of the mushrooms in the picture were found by the pointer Dilly.

Poisonous mushrooms: Red fly agaric Amanita agaric is a genus of lamellar mushrooms of the order agaricaceae. The fruiting body of young fly agarics is enclosed in the so-called. a blanket that breaks and remains in the form of a film or scales on the surface of the cap. OK. 100 species, widely distributed. Many fly agarics are poisonous, especially the toadstool and red fly agaric. Gray-pink fly agaric, floater (there is no ring on the stem) and Caesar mushroom are edible.

Poisonous mushrooms: Pale toadstool Pale toadstool is the most poisonous lamellar mushroom of the fly agaric genus. The cap is green or greenish to white, with white plates. Leg with a membranous ring and a sac-like vagina. In deciduous, less often coniferous forests of Eurasia and Northern. America

Poisonous mushrooms: Among mushrooms, there are a number of poisonous and inedible mushrooms that can cause poisoning. These are, first of all, fly agarics and toadstools, false honey mushrooms, etc. There are no reliable methods for distinguishing edible and poisonous mushrooms; They are often part of the same family, so you should only collect mushrooms that you are sure of. Poisoning can also be caused by conditionally edible mushrooms - morels and strings, uncooked pigs, unsalted volushki, white mushrooms and other mushrooms with a pungent taste. The cause of poisoning can also be overgrown fruiting bodies in which decay products have accumulated. Mushroom poison is dangerous because its effect appears only 12–24 hours after poisoning, when it is almost impossible to neutralize it.

Conditionally edible mushrooms: Some mushrooms, such as morels, strings and sow mushrooms, are conditionally edible because they contain small amounts of toxic substances. Before eating, they should be boiled several times, adding fresh water each time.

Symbiosis of mushrooms and trees: Symbiotrophic mushrooms are widespread in nature, which obtain the organic substances necessary for life through symbiosis with higher plants (mycorrhiza or fungal roots). When found in the soil with small lateral roots of trees or shrubs, the mycelium entwines them, and a mushroom cap develops on the surface of the root. The suction hairs on the root die off and their function is taken over by the mycelium. Abundantly branching, far-extending hyphae absorb moisture from the soil over their entire huge surface and supply their symbiont no worse, and in some cases thousands of times better, than lost hairs. In turn, through mycorrhiza, the plant supplies the fungus with the organic substances it needs, mainly carbohydrates. Mycorrhiza using the example of pine. On the right is a mushroom root. On the left is a pine root that does not participate in the symbiosis. In Fig.

The significance of mushrooms: The significance of mushrooms is not limited to their use as food. Saprotrophic fungi play an important role in the cycle of substances in nature. By destroying plant residues in order to obtain the nutrients necessary for life, saprotrophs return some of these substances to the soil, making them available for absorption by other plants. Typically, fungi begin to decompose the remains; the final stages of this process are completed by bacteria. If we take into account the fact that the bulk of organic matter is formed by plants, the enormous role that saprotrophs play in the constant enrichment of the soil with organic matter becomes even more expressive. In addition, by destroying various remains, fungi, together with bacteria, serve as orderlies, clearing forests of annual litter.

Cap mushrooms (Basidiomycetes) live on humus-rich forest soil, in fields and meadows, and are found on rotting wood (summer and winter honey fungus, oyster mushrooms).

Higher fungi, the vegetative body of which is a branched mycelium consisting of segmented hyphae.

A distinctive feature of basidiomycetes is the presence of two haploid nuclei in each mycelial cell. Such a cell is called savage, and the mycelium developing from it is dikarionic.

During their development, sporulation organs are formed on the mycelium - fruiting bodies, consisting of a stem and a cap. The stem and cap are formed by dense bundles of hyphae. Two layers can be distinguished in the cap: a dense upper layer, often colored and covered with skin, and a lower layer. In some mushrooms - lamellar - the lower layer of the cap consists of radially arranged plates (in russula, milk mushrooms, champignons, and toadstool). In the porcini mushroom, boletus, boletus, and oiler, it consists of numerous tubes, which is why they are called tubular. Tens of millions of spores are formed on plates, in tubes, and in some representatives on spines or needles. After ripening, they spill out onto the soil and are carried by wind, water, insects and other animals, which contributes to the widespread distribution of mushrooms.

The spore-bearing surface of the cap is called hymenophore. He can be:

lamellar- has the shape of plates radiating out from the central lower surface of the cap in the form of rays (russula, chanterelle, milk mushroom, champignon);

tubular- has the form of tubes tightly adjacent to each other (boletus, aspen boletus, oiler, boletus).

Due to the formation of plates and tubes, the surface area for sporulation increases significantly.

Reproduction of cap mushrooms. The edges of the plates or the inner surface of the tubes are represented by a layer of basidia. In the basidia, the dikaryon phase of the development of basidiomycetes is completed. The dikaryon nuclei fuse to form a diploid nucleus. It meiotically divides, and the haploid nuclei pass into basidiospores.

Among the cap mushrooms, there are both edible and poisonous ones. The most valuable edible mushrooms are white mushrooms, camelina, milk mushrooms, boletus, aspen mushrooms, butter mushrooms, and champignons.

Poisonous mushrooms, such as toadstool, many fly agaric mushrooms, some types of umbrella mushrooms, talkers, row mushrooms, etc., when they get into food, can cause serious and sometimes fatal poisoning. It should be remembered that mushroom proteins are broken down quite quickly to form toxic nitrogenous compounds, so poisoning can also be caused by non-poisonous but stale mushrooms.

Mukor. Class Zygomycetes. Lower mushrooms. The mycelium is nonseptate, branching, multinucleate (nuclei contain a haploid set of chromosomes), having the appearance of white mold (1).

Forms numerous vertical sporangiophores with sporangia. in sporangia endogenously Up to 10 thousand multinucleate spores are formed (2).

Once in suitable conditions, the spores germinate and give rise to a new mucor mycelium. This is how asexual reproduction of mucor occurs.

When the substrate is depleted, mucor switches to sexual reproduction according to the type of zygoogamy (gametangiogamy). The hyphae of different mycelia are brought together by swollen ends - gametangia (3), which are separated from the mycelium by partitions, the membranes between them dissolve, and the fusion of the cytoplasm and nuclei of different signs occurs.

A zygote is formed with numerous diploid nuclei, covered with a thick spinous membrane. After a period of rest, the nuclei undergo meiosis, the outer membrane of the zygote bursts, and it grows into a short hypha ending in a small sporangium. In it, as a result of meiotic division, “+” and “-” spores are formed. From these spores, vegetative “+” and “-” mycelia develop.

Penicill (brush). Class Ascomycetes. Saprotrophic soil and mold fungi that settle on bread, vegetables and other products.

The mycelium is haploid, septate, branching (1). At first it looks like a white cobwebby coating, and then acquires a greenish or bluish tint. They rise up from the mycelium conidiophores (2), the ends of which form a brush. At the tip of each branch, a chain of rounded spores is formed exogenously - conidium (3). They are carried by air currents and give rise to new mycelium.

Sexual reproduction rarely occurs. In this case, the gametangia merge and the formation of fruiting bodies containing asci (bags) occurs, in which haploid ascospores develop.

Some species are used to prepare the antibiotic penicillin. Also used in the food industry for the preparation of special types of cheese.

Yeast. Class Ascomycetes. Unicellular fungi. The vegetative body consists of single oval cells with one nucleus.

Yeasts are represented by a large number of species, widely distributed in nature. Baker's yeast exists only in culture, represented by hundreds of races: wine, bakery, beer. Wines occur naturally on the surface of fruits.

They use various sugars, simple and polyhydric alcohols, organic acids and other substances as a carbon source. The ability to ferment carbohydrates, breaking down glucose to form ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide, served as the basis for the introduction of yeast into culture.

They reproduce by budding. A bud appears at one end of the cell, begins to grow and separates from the mother cell. Often the daughter cell does not lose contact with the mother cell, and itself begins to form buds. As a result, short chains of cells are formed. However, the connection between them is fragile, and when shaken, such chains break up into individual cells.

With a lack of nutrition and excess oxygen, the sexual process occurs in the form hologamia- copulation (fusion) of two haploid cells. The resulting zygote turns into a bag in which 4 ascospores are formed by meiosis, each of which develops into new yeast cells.

They consist of tightly intertwined hyphae. This is the dormant stage of the fungus. During the rye ripening period, they fall to the ground and overwinter under the snow. In spring, they form reddish spherical heads on long stalks. Along the periphery there are a large number of fruiting bodies - perithecia. In the perithecia there are asci. Spores mature during the flowering of rye.

Ripe spores land on the stigma of the rye pistil and germinate, forming mycelium. The mycelial hyphae penetrate the ovary and destroy it. At the ends of the mushroom filaments, round conidiospores are formed in large numbers.

At the same time, the threads of the fungus secrete a sweet liquid - honeydew, which attracts insects. Flying from one ear to another, insects spread fungal spores to uninfected ears. Conidia, once on the ovary, form a mycelium, which becomes denser by autumn, its outer layers are colored, and instead of caryopsis, horns are formed in the ear.

Ergot horns contain poisonous alkaloids, which, when entering the human body, cause poisoning (sometimes fatal).

Tinder fungi (Basidiomycetes). Serious damage to forestry is caused by fungi - tinder fungi. Polypores affect many deciduous trees. A tinder spore, once on a wound in a tree, grows into a mycelium and destroys the wood. After a few years, perennial hoof-shaped fruiting bodies are formed. Polypores secrete enzymes that destroy wood and turn it into dust.

Even after the death of a tree, the fungus continues to live on the dead substrate (as a saprotroph), annually producing large numbers of spores and infecting healthy trees. Therefore, it is recommended to remove dead trees and fruiting bodies of polypores from the forest.

The meaning of mushrooms in the biosphere and national economy. Fungi, along with bacteria, play an important role in the general circulation of substances in the biosphere. By decomposing organic substances into simple inorganic compounds with the help of enzymes, they make them accessible to autotrophic organisms, participate in the formation of a fertile layer of soil - humus, and perform a great sanitary job of cleansing the environment.

Mushrooms are widely used in the national economy to obtain feed protein, citric acid, enzymes, vitamins, antibiotics, and growth substances.

Class: 5

Presentation for the lesson

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Target: Introduce students to the variety of mushrooms.

Educational - to form an idea of ​​the diversity of mushrooms, to teach them to distinguish between edible and inedible mushrooms, to explain the rules for collecting mushrooms and their significance in nature.

Developmental - develop the ability to apply acquired knowledge about mushrooms in everyday life, continue to develop attention, memory, oral and written speech, skills of independent work with the text of a textbook, continue to develop skills in working with a microscope and herbarium specimens.

Educational- continue biological education: cultivate interest in the world around us, cultivate a caring attitude towards school equipment and surrounding organisms, cultivate concern for one’s own health.

Lesson methods: verbal (conversation, story, explanation); visual (demonstration of tables, herbariums, multimedia programs); practical (working with a textbook, performing practical work with microslides and herbariums).

Equipment: mold grown on bread, yeast culture, herbarium samples of ergot, dummies of cap mushrooms, tinder fungi, microscope, pipette, slides and coverslips, tables depicting mushrooms.

During the classes:

I. Organizational moment (welcome, checking readiness for the lesson).

II. Check of knowledge

Frontal survey

1. What plants are called cultivated?

2. List the main groups of cultivated plants and examples.

3. Name the first ancient center where gardening flourished (Ancient Egypt).

Differentiated survey by cards

1. What vegetable and fruit crops are grown in your area.

2. Herbarium specimens are given. Determine which groups of cultivated plants the plants offered to you belong to.

III. Learning new material.

We continue to study living organisms and in the lesson we will get acquainted with organisms such as mushrooms. Write down the topic of the lesson: “Diversity of mushrooms” Slide No. 1.

What should we find out during the lesson? (How mushrooms live, where they are found, how they are structured, and we will also find out how to distinguish edible mushrooms from inedible ones).

A story with elements of conversation

You have all encountered mushrooms. Describe your associations Slide No. 2.

Do mushrooms look like plants? Why? Do they look like animals? Why?

Slide number 3. Mushrooms- This is a large group of organisms, numbering over 100 thousand species. They occupy an intermediate position between plants and animals. To feed, mushrooms need ready-made organic matter, which brings them closer to animals. But in terms of the way they absorb food - by absorption, not ingestion - they are similar to plants.

Where do mushrooms live?

Fungi live wherever there are organic substances: in soil, in water, in homes, on food products, on the body of humans and animals.

What mushrooms do you know?

Do you think there are single-celled fungi?

Slide number 4

I asked you to prepare an experiment at home. Remind me what you did with a piece of bread? What are you seeing now?

If the bread sits for several days in a warm, humid place, a white fluffy coating appears on it, which darkens after a few days. It turns out that this is a mold fungus mukor. Slide #5: It also appears on fruits, breads and vegetables. The mushroom itself consists of thin white threads that form the mycelium (mycelium). The fruiting body extends from the mycelium. Some threads of the mycelium rise upward and expand at the ends. Here there are spores, thanks to which fungi reproduce.

Slide number 6. Another mold is the mushroom penicillium.

Settles on food and soil. The mycelium consists of many cells. Penicillium cells produce a substance that kills bacteria.

Molds cause rotting and spoilage of food, grain, fruit, and fabrics.

Slide number 7. Fungi include microscopic yeast. Consist of one cell shaped like a ball. They reproduce by budding. A bulge appears on the adult cell, which grows and turns into an independent cell. Used in making bread and wine.

Practical work with a microscope. Slide number 8

Let's look at the structure of yeast under a microscope.

Fizminutka

Demonstration of photographs and herbariums of fungi with elements of explanation (smut, ergot, tinder fungus).

Slide number 9. Many mushrooms are active wood destroyers. These fungi include the tinder fungus. Settled on wooden parts of houses and other buildings, on sleepers and poles, they render the wood completely unusable. Penetrating into the trunk through damage in the bark, the fungi cause the formation of rot. Rot weakens the tree, it loses its stability and becomes susceptible to frost and drought.

Slide number 10. A fungus settles on some grain crops - ergot. In affected plants, you can see black-purple horns (dense plexuses of mycelium filaments). Settles on grain crops.

Teacher's explanation with elements of conversation

Slide No. 11. Among the variety of mushrooms, the most famous, and you know them well, are cap mushrooms. These include boletus, boletus, honey mushrooms, saffron milk caps, fly agarics and many mushrooms well known to you.

Hat mushrooms consist of a mycelium (long white threads), which is hidden in the ground, and a fruiting body. The fruiting body is popularly called a mushroom, which consists of a hemp (legs) and a cap. Hats have different colors.

Mushrooms grow quite quickly. On average ten days. They need warm soil and plenty of moisture to grow well. After the death of the fungus, a mycelium remains in the ground, which will again give rise to a new fungus.

What do you think, where did the name of the mushrooms “boletus”, “boletus” come from?

The mycelium and the root of trees are inseparable in their development, forming a single mushroom root. The mushroom picker receives nutrients from trees, it also gives them some useful substances that it extracts from the ground along with moisture better than trees. This beneficial relationship between a mushroom and a tree is called symbiosis.

Slide number 12. Symbiosis- This is a type of relationship between two organisms in which both benefit.

Give examples: birch + boletus, aspen + boletus, pine forest + mushrooms.

Teacher's story.

Many mushrooms are eaten by humans as a tasty and nutritious food. The fruiting bodies of mushrooms contain a lot of water, proteins, minerals, and vitamins. The most valuable of them are champignons, white, boletus, boletus, milk mushrooms.

When collecting mushrooms, it is important to be able to distinguish edible mushrooms from poisonous ones.

Independent work with the text of the textbook (p. 183, memo).

Let's find out the rules for collecting mushrooms. Slide No. 13, 14.

Game “Guess the Mushroom”

I show you a photograph of a mushroom, and you use two cards on your table to show whether this mushroom is edible or poisonous. And also call this mushroom.

Slide number 15

White mushroom (the hat is brown on top, spongy below, white, greenish-yellow. The leg is thick, white with a mesh pattern).

Gall mushroom.

Slide number 16

Pale grebe (The most poisonous mushroom. The main symptom: a cover on the lower part of the stem. The mushroom grows and the cover breaks. Remains of it can sometimes be seen on the hat and always on the lower part of the stem. The underside of the hat is greenish-white).

Champignon (the underside of the cap is pink, there is no cover on the underside of the stem).

Slide number 17

Honey mushrooms: true and false.

Slide number 18

Fly agaric (the fruiting body of young fly agarics is enclosed in a so-called blanket, which breaks and remains in the form of a film or scales on the surface of the cap. The cap is orange-red).

Camelina (cap and leg of reddish shades, orange flesh (later turns green).

Eating poisonous mushrooms can, at best, cause severe poisoning, and at worst, death. Therefore, it is necessary to know all the poisonous mushrooms, and if you are in doubt whether a mushroom is edible or poisonous, it is better not to put it in the basket.

Tell me, what kind of help should be provided to a victim of mushroom poisoning? Slide number 19

1. Drink 2-3 glasses of water at room temperature with baking soda.

2. Induce vomiting by pressing on the root of the tongue.

3. Go to bed and drink hot tea.

4. Call a doctor (ambulance).

IV. Reinforcing the material learned

Frontal conversation on the basic concepts of the topic (game) Slide No. 20-32

Reflection.

What new and useful did you learn in class today? Have we achieved the goal of the lesson?

V. Explanation of homework. § 44.45 read, paraphrase. Slide number 33.

VI. Summing up the lesson.

Literature

1. Pakulova V.M., Ivanova N.V. Nature. Lifeless and living: textbook for 5th grade. general education Textbook Establishments. M.: Bustard, 2000.
2. Manual for teachers: Pakulova V.M., Ivanova N.V. Nature. Thematic planning for the textbook, Bustard. 2000
3. Natural history 5th grade: materials for lessons (poems, quizzes, crosswords) / comp. ON THE. Kasatkina. - Volgograd: Teacher, 2003.

Mushrooms are a kingdom of living organisms that combine the characteristics of plants and animals. The study of the kingdom of mushrooms, which includes at least 100 thousand species, is the subject of the science of mycology (“mikos” - mushroom, “logos” - science), which arose at the end of the 19th century, the founder of which was the Russian scientist F.M. Kamensky.

Mushrooms are a kingdom of living organisms that combine the characteristics of plants and animals.

Cap mushrooms. As you know, a characteristic feature of cap mushrooms is a fruiting body consisting of a stalk and an expanded upper part - a cap. If a part of the fruiting body is rubbed between a slide and cover glass and such a preparation is examined using a microscope, it will be noticeable that the fruiting body consists of mycelium filaments, tightly adjacent to each other. The top of the cap is covered with a thin film, painted in bright colors; below there is a special spore-bearing layer where spores develop.

Molds. On food products, soil rich in organic matter, and manure, you can see characteristic films consisting of highly branched threads of the mycelium. These are different types of fungi, which are called molds. They feed on organic matter from the remains of organisms or the products of their vital activity.

Mucor forms whitish or gray films on food and soil surfaces. Its mycelium is a single branched multinucleated cell. The fluffy coating turns black over time, as round sporangia appear on the mycelium, in which a large number of black spores are formed.

These are the molds grown by sixth graders for the lesson.

Penicillium consists of branched filaments separated by septa into individual cells. In this it differs from the unicellular mycelium mucor. Penicillium fungi in the form of blue or green films develop on food products. Spores are formed at the tops of special formations in the form of brushes.

Yeast- single-celled microscopic fungi. They, as you know, do not form true mycelium and live on the surface of plants and animals or in various solutions containing sugars. Many types of yeast live in soil. Reproducing by budding, they form colonies in the form of branched or unbranched chains.

Powdery mildew fungi cause diseases of grapes, gooseberries, cucumbers, cereals and other crops. A common sign of diseases caused by these fungi is the appearance of white or brown spots on green stems, leaves and fruits, reminiscent of spilled flour. During the maturation of the spores, the mycelium secretes sugary drops (hence the name “dew”), which attract insects, which transfer the fungal spores to other plants. Affected organs turn yellow, wither and die.

Friendship and help in nature.

Mushrooms don't just grow on the ground. Beneath them, in the loose humus soil, are the thinnest threads of a whitish color. Under each mushroom they form a complex web, and at its plexus the fruiting body of the mushroom makes its way upward. Mushrooms grow on mycelium, similar to how apples and pears grow on the branches of a spreading tree. They grow only briefly and only to scatter tiny spores around the world, which replace seeds in the kingdom of mushrooms. And the thin white threads, called mycelium or mycelium by scientists, do not die for several years. While studying the mycelium of various mushrooms, people noticed that very often these thin white threads are very closely intertwined with the roots of growing trees. A birch tree grows, and its roots are entwined with boletus mycelium. Mushrooms receive food from trees or from the rotting remains of these plants - rotten mushrooms, stumps. The trees, in turn, benefit from the mycelium. The mycelium supplies the tree with additional moisture and minerals.

We can conclude. The close connection between plants and fungi - a connection that is beneficial to both one and the other - is called symbiosis. And the penetration of mycelium into the root of a tree - mycorrhiza or fungal root.

THE IMPORTANCE OF MUSHROOMS IN HUMAN LIFE.

Positive:

Food use

edible mushrooms. For example, russula, white milk mushrooms, etc., after processing, are used for food. For food purposes, mushrooms are grown as agricultural crops or collected in their natural habitats.

Mushroom picking, or “mushroom hunting,” is a popular outdoor activity or hobby in many countries.

Various microscopic fungi are used in the food industry: numerous yeast cultures are important for making vinegar, koumiss, kefir, and also in baked goods. Mold crops have long been used for cheese making(Roquefort, Camembert), as well as some wines (sherry).
Due to the fact that in mushrooms high chitin content, their nutritional value is low, and they are difficult to absorb by the body. However, the nutritional value of mushrooms lies not so much in their nutritional value, but in high aromatic and taste qualities Therefore, they are used for seasonings, dressings, in dried, salted, pickled form, and also in the form of powders.

Application in medicine

Some types of fungi produce important substances (including antibiotics).
Mushrooms and preparations made from them are widely used in medicine. The list of official preparations contains numerous preparations from mushrooms:

• from chaga, ergot
• substances extracted from the culture medium of penicillium and other fungi (used in the production of antibiotics).

Technical Application

The production of citric acid based on biotechnology - microbiological synthesis - has become widespread.
Negative:

Poisonous mushrooms

The most famous of them are even included in fairy tales - the pale toadstool and the fly agaric in folklore serve as indispensable attributes of the dwelling of the evil Baba Yaga, etc. In this form, parents once taught their children safety precautions when handling mushrooms.

There are a large number of different pathogenic fungi known to cause plant diseases(every year, due to their fault, up to 1/3 of the standing and storage crop is lost), animals and humans(dermatoses, diseases of hair, nails, respiratory and genital tract, oral cavity).
They cause severe food poisoning.
Wood-destroying mushrooms cause rapid destruction of wood materials, buildings and products, and are therefore considered pathogenic in forest phytopathology.