Mycology Terms
This section defines the core vocabulary of mycology — the terms needed to describe what fungi are, how they are built, how they reproduce, and what they do in ecosystems.
Structure and cell biology
- Hyphae — the individual filaments that compose mycelium
- Septum — the cross-walls that divide hyphae into cells
- Coenocytic — the undivided, multinucleate hyphal organization found in basal fungal lineages
- Cytoplasm — the cell contents and the streaming that integrates the network
- Mycelium — the vegetative network body of a fungus
- Anastomosis — the fusion of hyphae that converts branching filaments into a true network
- Chitin — the structural polymer of fungal cell walls
Reproduction
- Spore — the reproductive unit of fungi
- Zoospore — the motile, flagellated spore of chytrid fungi
- Fruiting Body — the spore-producing structure of a fungus
- Basidium — the spore-bearing cell of Basidiomycota (club fungi)
- Ascus — the spore-bearing cell of Ascomycota (sac fungi)
Nutrition and biochemistry
- Heterotroph — an organism that cannot make its own food
- Extracellular Digestion — the fungal feeding strategy: digest externally, absorb the products
- Substrate — the material a fungus grows on and through
- Cellulose — the structural polysaccharide of plant cell walls, a primary fungal food source
- Lignin — the structural polymer of wood, degradable almost exclusively by fungi
- Saprotroph — an organism that feeds on dead organic matter
Symbiosis
- Mycorrhiza — symbiotic association between a fungus and plant roots
- Hartig Net — the intercellular hyphal network of ectomycorrhizal associations
- Arbuscule — the branched nutrient-exchange structure inside plant root cells
- Root Exudate — chemical signals from plant roots that initiate mycorrhizal partnerships
- Lichen — composite organism formed by a fungus and a photosynthetic partner