Fungus | Definition, Characteristics, Types, & Facts | Britannica
Jan 9, 2025 · Fungus, any of about 144,000 known species of organisms of the kingdom Fungi, including yeasts, mildews, molds, and mushrooms. Fungi are some of the most widely distributed organisms on Earth and are of great environmental and medical importance. Learn more about their life cycles, evolution, taxonomy, and features.
Characteristics and harmful effects of fungi | Britannica
Essential to many food and industrial processes, fungi are used in the production of enzymes, organic acids, vitamins, and antibiotics. Fungi can also destroy crops, cause diseases in humans (e.g., candidiasis and ringworm), and ruin clothing and food with mildew and rot.
Form and function of fungi - Encyclopedia Britannica
Jan 9, 2025 · Fungus - Reproduction, Nutrition, Decomposition: The mushrooms, because of their size, are easily seen in fields and forests and consequently were the only fungi known before the invention of the microscope in the 17th century.
Microbiology - Bacteria, Viruses, Fungi | Britannica
Fungi. Fungi are eukaryotic organisms that, like algae, have rigid cell walls and may be either unicellular or multicellular. Some may be microscopic in size, while others form much larger structures, such as mushrooms and bracket fungi that grow in soil or on damp logs.
Fungus - Classification, Types, Reproduction | Britannica
Jan 9, 2025 · The true fungi, which make up the monophyletic clade called kingdom Fungi, comprise seven phyla: Chytridiomycota, Blastocladiomycota, Neocallimastigomycota, Microsporidia, Glomeromycota, Ascomycota, and Basidiomycota (the latter two being combined in the subkingdom Dikarya). The group of ancestral fungi is thought to be represented by the ...
Mushroom | Definition, Characteristics, Species, & Facts | Britannica
Jan 21, 2025 · Mushroom, the conspicuous umbrella-shaped fruiting body (sporophore) of certain fungi, typically of the order Agaricales in the phylum Basidiomycota but also of some other groups. Popularly, the term mushroom is used to identify the edible sporophores; the term toadstool is often reserved for inedible sporophores.
Ascomycota | Description, Fungi, Examples, & Facts | Britannica
Dec 23, 2024 · Ascomycota, a phylum of fungi (kingdom Fungi) characterized by a saclike structure, the ascus, which contains four to eight ascospores in the sexual stage.
Fungus - Decomposers, Symbiosis, Ecosystems | Britannica
Jan 9, 2025 · Together with bacteria, fungi are responsible for breaking down organic matter and releasing carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and phosphorus into the soil and the atmosphere. Fungi are essential to many household and industrial processes, notably the making of bread, wine, beer, and certain cheeses.
Protist | Definition, Characteristics, Reproduction, Examples,
Jan 2, 2025 · They may share certain morphological and physiological characteristics with animals or plants or both. The term protist typically is used in reference to a eukaryote that is not a true animal , plant , or fungus or in reference to a eukaryote that lacks a multicellular stage.
Basidiomycota | Mushrooms, Yeasts, Rusts | Britannica
Basidiomycota, large and diverse phylum of fungi (kingdom Fungi) that includes jelly and shelf fungi; mushrooms, puffballs, and stinkhorns; certain yeasts; and the rusts and smuts. Basidiomycota are typically filamentous fungi composed of hyphae.