Fungi like Protists

The Kingdom Protista includes a broad group of eukaryotic creatures known as protists. Individual members of this Kingdom, which comprises all eukaryotes that aren’t animals, plants, or fungi, have few commonalities. Although a few species are multicellular, most protists are tiny and unicellular. Protists typically reproduce asexually, while some are sexually reproducible. Some protists are heterotrophs, meaning they eat other tiny creatures and carbon-rich materials in their surroundings; others are photosynthesis, meaning they create their food using chloroplasts.

Fungus-like Protists

They are heterotrophic feeders, absorbing nutrition from decomposing organic substances in their surroundings, just like true fungus. They also use spores to reproduce. They are distinguished from real fungi by the presence of cellulose rather than chitin in their cell walls.

Examples of Fungus-like Protists

Slime moulds and water moulds are the two main forms of fungi-like protists.

Slime Molds

Slime moulds feed on decaying organic waste and are commonly seen on rotting logs. These moulds are usually unicellular, but when food is scarce, they can swarm and produce a sticky mass. In their quest for nourishment, these vividly coloured blobs can move slowly and, in rare circumstances, combine to create one massive multinucleated cell. Slime moulds have a life cycle that is remarkably similar to that of fungi. Haploid spores germinate into cells, which then fuse to produce a diploid zygote. The zygote matures into a plasmodium, which produces one to several fruiting bodies carrying haploid spores, depending on the species.

Most slime moulds are only a few centimetres in diameter, but the biggest may cover up to thirty square metres, making them the world’s largest undivided cells. Many of them have vibrant hues including yellow, brown, and white. Animal and plant-like traits can be seen in slime moulds. The slime moulds are divided into categories that are not closely linked to one another.

A slime mould spends most of its existence as a small amoeba that roams on its own. It moves around, consuming organic materials such as bacteria and other microscopic particles. Plasmodial slime moulds swarm and combine into a huge, multinucleated single-cell termed a plasmodium when food is scarce. The plasmodium is made up of thousands of nuclei and has no cell wall. 

Nutrition, Movement and Fruiting Bodies- 

Slime moulds eat bacteria found in decaying plant material. They live in the soil, on lawns, and in the forest, where they are most usually seen on deciduous wood. They can also be found in mulch and leaf mould that gathers in gutters.

The plasmodium might migrate about due to cytoplasmic movement within the cell. The cytoplasmic contents of each strand of the plasmodium travel quickly. The plasmodium moves when the cytoplasm flows in the same direction as the plasmodium and is pulled from the back portions. The plasmodium will move about, engulfing any bacterial cells or food items it comes across. When the plasmodium’s food supply runs out, it forms a fruiting body in which spores grow. Fruiting bodies, also known as sporangia, resemble the sporangia of fungus or moulds. Slime moulds, on the other hand, are not real fungi. After that, the sporangia will release spores, which will germinate and mature into amoebae, resuming the life cycle.

Water Molds

Water moulds, like slime moulds, live on the surface of water or in moist soil and feed on decomposing organic waste. Several plant infections are included in this category, including the destructive potato disease known as potato blight.

Reproduction of Fungus-Like Protists

Moulds are fungus-like protists. They eat decomposing organic materials and are absorptive feeders. They look like fungi and reproduce via spores, just like fungi. Slime moulds, or Myxomycota, are the only division of fungus-like protists. Syngamy is used to reproduce sexually. Water moulds, downy mildew, and slime moulds are fungus-like protists. These protists, like fungi, are heterotrophic, have cell walls, and reproduce by spores. Fungus-like protists migrate and reproduce in a variety of ways. Slime moulds are mobile cells at the beginning, but they undergo a stationary reproductive phase during which they create reproductive structures known as fruiting bodies.

ECOLOGY of Fungus-like Protists

Some water moulds are parasitic on other creatures, growing on amphibians, fish scales, and eggs. Fish are affected by the water mould Saprolegnia, which produces lesions, especially in ill fish. Parasites of aquatic invertebrates such as rotifers, nematodes, arthropods, and diatoms are among the other species

The various kinds of water moulds that are parasites on blooming plants, however, have the biggest influence on people. Grapes, lettuce, corn, cabbage, pineapples, avocados, potatoes, and a variety of other agricultural plants are all susceptible to these diseases.

Late blight in potato plants is caused by the water mould of Phytophthora infestans. The water moulds eat away at the stem and leaf tissues, eventually killing them

Conclusion

Without protists, our planet would be a very different one. Protists are eukaryotic, mainly unicellular, but occasionally multicellular creatures that include most algae, protozoans, and certain fungus-like species. Some, however, are parasites that harm plant species. Protists play a crucial function in the life cycle.

Photosynthetic protists, for example, are responsible for a large portion of the oxygen in our atmosphere. This session will focus on a distinct kind of organism known as fungus-like protists.

Fungus-like protists acquire their energy from consuming or eating dead organic materials. These fungus-like protists aren’t beautiful, pretty, handsome, or anything like that when you first encounter them. They have a creepy appearance. The majority of them resemble a strange mass of spreading muck.

Some fungus-like protists, such as some water moulds, absorb decaying material and operate as decomposers, just like fungi. Other fungus-like protists, such as slime moulds, differ from fungi in that they consume their food by phagocytosis. To return to the similarities, parasitic species assault other living creatures in both fungi and fungus-like protists.