Question

How do fungi reproduce?

Answer 1

Fungi is a heterotrophic organism and have symbiotic relationships with plants and bacteria and also belongs to the multicellular eukaryotic organism. Fungi reproduce by sexual as well as asexual reproduction.

Complete answer:
There are different ways for the reproduction of different species of fungi as some reproduce asexually which has the involvement of only one parent and some sexually which involves two-parents.

A)Asexual reproduction:
In this process, produced organisms are genetically identical offspring to the parent as they have the same DNA and asexual reproduction can be done by three methods i.e., spores, budding, and fragmentation.
Spores: spores are released by puffballs to create fungi, it is a powdery substance that produces the number of offsprings and haploid cells that are reproductive and found in plants, bacteria, algae, and protozoa.
Budding: in this process, the fungus produces a new small part of its body and when it grows it breaks out from the parent body and then becomes a new individual.
Fragmentation: in this process, a piece of mycelium which is a part of the fungus body splits out into two halves and results in the new colony of fungi.

B)Sexual reproduction:
In this type of reproduction, when a common mushrooms sporangium burst out then it releases many spores into the atmosphere and then these spores eventually grow into hyphae, and then through sexual reproduction, two hyphea’s fuse with each other and result in mycelium with sporangia and the process goes on.

Note: Asexual reproduction occurs quickly than sexual reproduction as it involves only one parent but sexual reproduction gives genetic diversity in the plants and animals as it involves two different traits from the two parents.