Kingdom Fungi

Prior to the introduction of the five kingdoms, fungi were classified in the same category as plants. However, they are different from plants in the composition of their cell walls. While the plant cell wall is made up of cellulose, the wall of fungi is made of chitinChitin is the most abundant amino polysaccharide polymer occurring in nature, and is the building material that gives strength to the exoskeletons of crustaceans, insects, fish and the cell walls of... More.

The study of fungi is called Mycology .

Characteristics of Kingdom Fungi:

1. They can be either unicellular e.g. Yeast or multicellular e.g. Mushroom, Rhizopus .

2. Their cell walls are composed of chitin .

3. They are important decomposers in the ecosystem.

4. They reproduce asexually by budding (e.g. yeast ), spore formation (e.g. bread mould ) or fragmentation.

5. They reproduce sexually by conjugation e.g. Rhizopus .  

6. Some fungi form mutualistic associations with algae, such as in Lichens. (Lichens can live on bare rocks and can survive harsh environmental conditions.)

7. Fungi carry out extracellularsituated or occurring outside a cell or the cells of the body. More digestionDigestion is the breakdown of large insoluble food compounds into small water-soluble components so that they can be absorbed into the blood plasma. In certain organisms, these smaller substances are absorbed... More i.e. outside the body and absorb the nutrients.

8. They are non-green plants lacking chlorophyll.

9. They have no true roots, stems or leaves.

10. Fungi are saprobesAn organism that lives off of dead or decaying organic material. They are free-living microbes. Examples are fungi. They act as decomposers in the food chain. More i.e. they