PLP 150C1 1st EditionExam 1 Study Guide: Lectures 1-6Lecture 1What is fungus?Achlorophylous, typically filamentous (except yeast) organisms that reproduce via spores, obtains nutrients through absorption processes, and has cell walls made of chitin. Domain: Eukarya, Kingdom: Fungi, Phylum: mycota, Class: mycetes, Order: ales, Family: aceae, Genus & Species: all species include these two taxonomic levels in their formal name.How is decomposition a large role of fungi?They break down big pieces of matter into little pieces. The most important nutrients recycled are carbon and nitrogen. Fungi use plants for food, but the food part is inside the cell, so they penetrate the cell wall. Who are the fathers of microbiology?Anthony Leeuwenhoek and Robert Hooke. They invented the microscope.What are the four divisions of fungi?Chytridiomycota, Zygomycota, Ascomycota (most important in terms of numbers), Basidiomycota (big ones we cook to eat)What are the characteristics?Achlorophuylous (reproduce by spores), Heterotrophic, Sexual and asexual, Haploid, Hyphae(filaments), Flagella, Chitin, Store food as glycogen, they digest and then ingest, Lysine (an amino acid) biosynthesis pathway in fungi is unique.Lecture 2What is the difference between anamorph and teleomorph?Anamorph is the asexual stage, and eleomorph is the sexual stage. What are the major parts of the mushroom?The cap (pileus), the ring (annulus), gills (lamellae), the stem (stipe), the volva and the mycelium.Lecture 3Do all fungi produce spores? Why or why not?No. Some seem to have lost their ability to sexually and mycotically reproduce.What are some fungal tools for diagnostics?Morphology in nature, its environment, its host, its culture characteristics, physiology studies, and DNA analysis.Lecture 4What is a disease?The process in which a disease-causing agent interferes with one or more essential plant functions. When the normal physiology is disrupted.What is a pathogen? What is pathogenicity?Any organism that causes disease. Pathogenicity is the ability of those pathogens to interfere.What is symbiosis? What are the different types?Living with/living together (not necessarily happily). Commensalism is when one benefits, the other is unaffected. Mutualism is when both benefit. Parasitism is when one benefits and the other is negatively affected.True or false: most groups of fungal-like organisms don’t contain pathogens.False. All groups of fungal-like organisms contain pathogens.What is damping-off disease? Describe it.It’s a soilborne disease that can pre- or post-emerge. Not very host specific, can significantly reduce crop yields, and if the plant does survive, the growth is usually stunted.Lecture 5What is plant pathology?Any of the following: 1. The study of organisms & non-biotic factors that cause disease. 2. Thestudy of environmental factors that promote disease. 3. The study of processes by which organisms infect plants & the mechanisms by which plants defend against pathogens. 4. The study of methods to control disease & prevent crop loss.What is the point of studying plant diseases?To secure a stable food supply and for fundamental research in plant-microbe interactions.Describe the Late Blight of Potatoes. Mention the population change.In early 1800s (1825) Irish population similar to what we see in many poor countries today, population at limits of food supply. At that time, England controlled Ireland. With the intro of potato from the “New World’, farmers could grow 3x at much food per hectare. Population doubles in 30 years! A period of economic boom, for the English who controlled Ireland. British landlords extracted as much as they could from the Irish peasants. A very exploitive environment. This is one of the first famines where the media was involved.Describe the Bengal Famine of 1943. Mention the causal agent.Asians heavily depend on just rice. 10 million died. Occurred in Bengal, several crop failures. WWII began and government closed access to Burma, the largest rice producer in the region. War created an economic boom that raised food prices and because economic struggle among the poor. In 1942 a cyclone hit, flooding much of the crop and causing perfect conditions for Helminthosporium oryzae - causal agent for brown spot disease of rice, 90% of crops failed. Very little emigration...because where would they go & how would they leave?Lecture 6Name three diseases caused by basidiomycetes.Rusts, smuts & wood decay.Describe the Armillaria root rot.Produces a large basidiocarp, inhabits soil, destroys wood. It is suggested that old stumps be removed & wood from pruning waste not be buried on site. It can kill individual trees, or survivein stumps of infected treed & spread to all trees, can produce millions of spores & can cover thousands of acres.Describe rusts. Include its host and what characterizes the disease.Perhaps the most important basidiomycete disease. Characterized by rust-colored pustules filledwith spores. Many are heteroecious, which means they need two different hosts to complete their life cycle; they have a very complex biology. They also produce sexual and asexual spores.What do smuts attack, and how do they attack?Ovaries of grains. They reduce the grain’s quality.Name some diseases cause by Ascomycetes.Fruit rots, leaf curl, powdery mildew, leaf spots, and blights.True or false: Powdery mildews are host specific.True. All biotrophs are host specific.How can one control the huge wood decay caused by Nectria canker?Chop down the tree, and let it regrow. Remove the infected tissue out of the orchard, and use dormant spray after it is cut down so that new infections cannot