Theme - How do fungi gain organic carbon and utilise it in their survival, growth and reproduction?

The key to understanding the success of the fungi is realising that fungi:

• require organic carbon for growth and survival,
• excrete a diversity of enzymes that digest the complex compounds outside the thallus, and then absorb the breakdown products. They also protect these products.
• translocate materials long distances through the thallus with minimal loss
• store organic molecules in protected locations
• break into fragments, as small as a single cell, each of which may initiate a new thallus.

This section of the course is broken into the following topics:

Heterotrophy a definition

Process of extracellular digestion

Storage of organic carbon on thallus

Secondary Metabolites

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