Why Are Fungi Such Great Decomposers?

For the article this episode is based on, it has Stuff Work. Spoke with Maren Brewer, Associate Professor of mycology that's the study of fungi in the Department of Plant Pathology at the University of Georgia. She said, Unfortunately, a lot of what the general public knows about fungi is bad. We focus on the ones that are causing plant or human diseases, but in general, the vast majority of fungi are hanging out and breaking down organic matter, not killing anything.

Fungi are actually in their own taxonomic kingdom, meaning they've got something going on that's very different from every other type of organism on Earth. The immediately obvious thing that sets fungi apart from everyone else is that they reproduce exclusively via spores, which are little packets of DNA that float on the air or pitcheride some other way, and then nestle into the soil or an old sandwich or whatever and set up shop, creating a new fungal body.

Although they are extremely diverse, all fungi have filament like growth structures called hiphi. One filament is a hypha. A few of them are high fie, and when there's a big mass of high fie we refer to it as mycillium. All fungi are eukaryotes. This means their cells are more similar to those of plants and animals than to bacteria and archaa, which are prokaryotes. Fungi cells have membrane bound

organelles and nucleus where their DNA is stored. But to borrow a phrase from some of my coworkers, here's where it gets crazy. Their hyphie grows similar to the way that plants do, with new cells propagating out from the developed ones, each with its own cell wall. However, those cell walls contain tough, bendable kitan like animal cells do. Kitan is also the main ingredient in the scales of fish and the exoskeletons of arthropods. Fungi also breathe oxygen

and release carbon dioxide like animals. Like plants, fungi can't move around, but unlike plants, they can't photosynthesize sunlight and water into energy. Instead, like animals, they eat by excreting digestive enzymes and absorbing nutrients from the compounds that those enzymes break down. That we do this internally in our stomachs,

but not every animal does. However, because fungi can't move around to catch prey, they found a decent workaround eating things that hold very still, like dead still often literally. Depending on the type of fungus, they might eat fallen trees or the outer dead layers of an animal's skin. You name it, there's probably a fungus out there that makes an enzyme that can break it down. Right now, billions of beneficial fungi can be found outside your window

in the soil, decomposing organic matter. Brewer said, of which enzymes the specific fungus has determines what it can eat, not all fungi come with the same enzymes. The ones that can break down cellulose are the ones that grow on plants or plant matter. The ones that break down keratin grow well on skin or pear or puves. It's a living for them, and it's also great for us, as what they're doing is of utmost importance to the

health of the planet's ecosystem. Not only are they responsible for turning organic matter that is dead plants and animal tissue into soil again, but the vast majority of the world's plant families have some sort of symbiotic relationship with fungi, in which the fungi pass water and nutrients into the roots of the plants, and the plants make sugars for

the fungi to eat. Because of their eating style, fungi are the great decomposers, regardless of whether they're a mushroom on the ground, a bracket on a tree, a puffball, a plant pathogen, or a film of mold on the wall of that forgotten tub of yogurt in the back of your refrigerator. There are several different pyla of fungi, but most of the ones we're familiar with fit into one of two of them, Basidio my Kota and Asco Mykota. The phylum that houses most of the fungi we think

of as mushrooms is the Basidia my Kota. They're in the grocery store and making fairy rings in your yard, cute little shelves on trees, and sometimes cause a plant diseases. Most of these have fruiting bodies that spring up from the mycilium formation rooted inside a dead log, for example, or under the soil. What we think of as the mushroom is just the reproductive structure that the mycillium sends

up to release spores. Once this spoor lands, the high fee start growing out in all directions, which is why mushrooms often grow in a ring formation like fairy rings. The other group of fungi you would likely recognize is the Aska mycota. Most molds, for instance, are in this phylum. They grow in circles like all fungi, so if you leave your coffee out for a few days, you'll notice

the mold grows radially out from a single point. Yeasts, moral mushrooms, truffles, and cut fungi are in this group, though most don't produce a large fruiting body like some of those. After that, fungi become less immediately recognizable. Brewer said, they start getting wee. There are lots of animal parasites out there, like aquatic fung guy that are flagellated so they can move around in water, which includes the cretid fung guy that are killing off all of the planet's frogs.

A new phyla are being figured out all the time, so that's exciting. We would say it's exciting. Indeed. Today's episode is based on the article the Fungi among Guy are the Great Decomposers on how stuffworks dot Com, written by Jesslin Shields. Brain Stuff is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with how Stuffworks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang and Ramsey youwn a four more podcast.

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