Fungi Reproduction

Hi. In this video, we're gonna talk about how fungi reproduce now. Fungi show sexual and a sexual reproduction, though there are some fun guy that Onley reproduce a sexually and we call those duro my seats. Now it's worth noting that all fun guy are going to reproduce using spores regardless of whether it's sexual reproduction, a sexual reproduction, whatever and the sport producing structures that fungi create are usually called fruiting bodies. Kind of an informal name for them. Uh, as you'll see, there are mawr technical terms for types of fruiting bodies on. We'll cover those Aziz we go on now, fungi don't fall into the traditional male female dichotomy. Like many other organisms we've talked about, Do fungi do have mating types, but they're different. Mating types don't actually appear morphological e different. Um, so you're probably wondering how do fund I know who to mate with the answers? They wait and see which bathroom they go in. No, I'm kidding. They use pheromones to communicate their mating type, and these air secreted a chemical signals that the fun guy will secrete and other fun guy will pick up on and say, Hey, you're looking pretty good tonight. Now, uh, if you're curious about learning a little bit more about these chemical signals and fungal mating, Uh, if you check out the chemical signals chapter, you actually can learn a little bit about yeast meeting. Now, before we move on, I do want to say that part of the reason we don't use a simple male female dichotomy when talking about fungi mating types is because they have so many different mating types within a single species. In fact, some species actually will have thousands of different mating types. So that's why the little old male female breakdown just doesn't cut it. Anyhow, fertilization will occur by high fate using together and then eventually, their nuclei fusing together. And this is gonna be something a trend you're going to see in all the types of fun guy we're gonna talk about except the chi trades. They actually do it a little different. We'll get to that later. But first I just want to give you a general overview of what a fungal life cycle might look like, right? This is not a specific. This is just general. So the first stage of sexual reproduction, if you want to think of it in stages is going to be the fusion of haIf A. You see that happening here. We call that plasma gamy, and essentially, it's when the cytoplasm of two cells fuse. But the nuclei don't fuse yet. We don't have fusion of nuclear that actually has its own special name, so the resulting cell is going to be considered hetero carry. Ah, tick. And that's because it's gonna have to, um, it can have two or more technically, But let's just say to for now, nuclei that are genetically different from one another. In the case of our example of fungus, these they're gonna be too happy, Lloyd nuclei that are genetically distinct. It can, uh, it can be more than two nuclei. Just to be clear about that, hetero, periodic can refer to something that has two or more genetically distinct nuclei. And in our example, I'm just gonna leave it at two nuclei. Thio keep things simple, and so you'll often see this written as n plus. And now remember, n usually means Hap Lloyd, but because our fungus is gonna have to half Lloyd nuclei together in a cell we sometimes see it written as n plus n. Now, in our example, we're talking about a cell that is di carry attic meaning it contains two nuclei. Right, So die carry attic means has two nuclei Hetero carry attic. It means it has two or more genetically distinct nuclei. Right? Cario is going thio refer Thio the nucleus and hetero means different die means to That's where these terms come from Now the final stage of sexual reproduction is going to be when those two hap Lloyd nuclei fuse and form a zygote and we call this carry Aga me and you can see that happening right here. Here we have our technically here we're actually seeing plasma gamy and Khoury Aga me. So let me be clear about that. We have first plasma gamy and then here. So this first portion is plasma gamy And then this second portion is Carrie Agony and that is the fusion of the two nuclei in tow. One new now deployed nucleus and this is going to form the zygote. The zygote will form a spore producing structure, right? Fruiting body if you will. And in most fungi, zygote is actually the only deployed stage of the fungus. And that's why we don't really have a good picture of it in this nice little drawing of a fungal life cycle, because it's really often just a transient single celled structure. Now, this fruiting body that you see here you might recognize is a mushroom. Yes, In fact, mushrooms are the fruiting bodies of various fungi. So when we talk about fungi were actually usually talking about the reproductive structures, not the main fungal body, the Mycelium. So, uh, this fruiting body develops, it's gonna give off its spores. Right here we have spores and these spores they're going to disperse. And what this image is trying to depict is being dispersed through rain through insects. Um, that's more the realm of ecology. We'll talk about dispersal, uh, in a different chapter. The main point is, these spores are going thio. Eventually, Germany form haIf A. That's what these are these air haif A. And then the process will repeat to high fe of different mating types. That's what the's two colors. They're supposed to represent mating types. So these two high fate of different mating types will get together again. Fuse haIf a plasma gamy carry agonies. I go leads to spore producing structure, which releases spores, right, the fruiting body. Lisa spores. The spores germinate more haIf a and on and on and on Now, I did say there was an exception to the cycle and that comes in the form of the chi trades, which are actually the only fun guy to exhibit alteration of generations. Remember, alteration of generations is when you have a, um uh, multi cellular spore fight generation and commedia fight generation, right, similar to plants. Ah, and some protests, for that matter. Now what? What distinguishes the chi trades are their flag, elated spores and GAM. It's and we actually have a special term for these flag related spores. We call them Zeus Fours. And these are again produced by hatreds, which are fun guy that do not follow the model of reproduction that we just went through. All right with that, let's flip the page and take a look at some specifics

now's I go My seats. Air named for their distinctive reproductive structure The Zygo spar, Angie. Um and this is what's formed after plasma. Gamy. So you'll notice. Here we have our plasma gaming stage to Haifa are gonna get together and they're going to fuse and form a zygote after Carrie Aga me, Right? So first they'll fuse Cytoplasm is Then the nuclei will fuse will form a zygote at that point. And the zygote is going to develop into the Saigo. Spare Angie A which is the spore producing structure off his I go my seat that arises from the fusion of hyphen. It actually, um very cool It sits is kind of this blob. So here we have our So I go groups. Zygo sprang Geum Right again, Spring G. Um, that's gonna be the singular form of this word. So our Zygo sprang Geum right here, This structure. And, uh, essentially, this is going thio sprout, uh, sport producing structure that will, you can see right here, and the structure will rupture giving off the various spores. And those fours will then eventually turn Germany turned into haif a and grow and get together and repeat the cycle. So this is the sexual life cycle for Zygo my seats. But it's worth noting that they actually have an a sexual form of reproduction where these Speranza Fours form from their haIf a and basically their stocks with spring JIA at the tip. So a structure not unlike this one we saw here Um, of course, these air going thio release spores that were created through a sexual reproduction, though not sexual reproduction. And again, those a sexual sport producing structures air called Spare Anja Fours. That's brandy pours. All right, moving on. We have Baseggio, Mike OTA and these are mushrooms that were familiar with eating, though actually, as you'll see, not all mushrooms that we eat are the city of my kota now, Uh, Presidio, my kota have reproductive structures that are made of joy. I carry attic haIf a and again these are mushrooms and these die carry attic haIf have what are called the city A on their end. So, looking at our diagram here, the fruiting body is also called the Baseggio carp. You can see it right there. Uh, it kind of looks like a cross section. Like if you cut a mushroom in half, but basically the city. Oh, carps are mushrooms that were used to seeing, like if you were to draw a cartoon of a mushroom you'd be drawing of a city over. So these, uh, Basilio carps are again made up of these die karadic haIf a and on their tips which, uh, if we're looking at this mushroom here basically hanging, um, in on the underside of the mushroom. Are these the city A or bas idiom? Singular. And these air, the spore producing cells in which carry agony is going to occur and they're going to produce the city of spores, which go on to Germany for haIf a And you know, those hi Fay of different mating types will get together. Plasma gamy. The dike periodic haIf a will then form, uh, mushroom sitio carp. And the process will repeat itself. And, uh, it's these Bossidy of these sport producing structures that give this group of fungi its name. Now let's turn the page and talk about the other type of mushroom We

ask Oh my Kota have reproductive structures that are made of die Karadic haIf a. But unlike Cassidy of my Kota, they form. Ask I on their ends, not the setia. Now ask ir spore producing structures and they specifically produced eight half Lloyd sports called Ask a Sports and these are contained. These ask I that is, are contained within Anasco carp, which is the fruiting body of ASCO Mike OTA. And you might recall, from the first video fungi that we looked at Morel mushroom. Well, that's an example of an esco card. So the city of carps and Asko carps are the mushrooms that were normally eating when we eat mushrooms. And again, those were the reproductive structures of fun guy, not the main fungal body Mycelium. Now looking at ASCO, my co two reproduction, we actually will form Theo, ask us. You can see the initial ask us there. We have the two cells. They'll fuse to form the zygote, and then we'll have a Siris of cell divisions. You don't really need to worry about the specifics of all of that. But through a series of cell divisions, we go from having a deployed zygote to eight Hap Lloyd spores. You can see those all here, and they're contained in the Ask us sack. And they ask us itself really is kind of like a sack. And that's why thes are sometimes called Zach Fungi. And what's kind of crazy about these Ask a sax is when the spores are ready to go. These ask a sax which, unlike bas idea, remember Bossidy a hang down there on the external surface of the city of Carp. These ask I are actually inside the ask a carp and these spores will be ejected forcibly ejected from this sack. So they burst forth and are spread that way. And of course, the asco spores will Germany turn into High Fe. And these high fake can actually also reproduce a sexually. And when they reproduce a sexually, they form spores called Canadia. And what's interesting is these Canadia, as you can see happening here and here, these Canadia can actually also be involved in sexual reproduction so they can fertilize, uh, another, um, fungus of different mating type or, um, they can, uh, Germany and turn into life a in an a sexual reproductive process. All right, that's all I have for fungal reproduction. I'll see you guys next time