Mycology lectures2015 3rd year students, first lecture

• Mycology is the study of fungus. All fungi are eukaryotic organisms, non-motile. Most of them are obligate aerobic, some are facultative aerobic. Some of them are capsulated, all fungi are ,heterotrophic, chemotrophic organisms. Gram positive, natural habitat is the environment .
• Fungi exhibit diverse lifestyles: it lives either: free in nature, saprophytic ,parasitic or mutalistic. Fungi live everywhere in the air, in water, on lands, in soil, and in and on plants and animals .
Classification of fungi: Based on Sexual reproduction:
1. Zygomycetes: which produce through production of zygospores.
2. Ascomycetes: which produce endogenous spores called ascospores in cells called asci.
3. Basidiomycetes: which produce exogenous spores called basidiospores in cells called basidia.
4. Deuteromycetes (Fungi imperfecti): fungi that are not known to produce any sexual spores (ascospores or basidiospores). This is a heterogeneous group of fungi where no sexual reproduction has yet been demonstrated.