Question

How many cells must fungi have?

Answer 1

The kingdom of fungi as described by Whittaker has an enormous amount of organisms but different characteristics. These organisms are characterized according to their number of cells, cell shape, size, etc. also, some fungi are harmful and non-edible and some are edible and non-poisonous.

Complete answer:
• Fungi are one of the kingdoms belonging to the five-kingdom classification of Whittaker.
• There are organisms with different cell shapes, sizes, and numbers.
• They can be unicellular to multicellular. The word fungi are derived from the word fungus meaning mushrooms or mushroom-like.
• Many fungi are edible whereas others and non-edible. But for fungi to exist, a minimum of a single cell is required.
For example- Yeast is a single-celled fungus.
• Therefore any organism must possess a single cell to exist. Apart from that they can have multiple cells and can be multicellular.
For example- Penicillium notatum
• Some fungi show dimorphic stages. They can transform from 1 form to another. These fungi can turn from the unicellular and multicellular forms depending upon the environmental conditions.
• Most of the fungi are multicellular but those which are single-celled are known as Yeast such as Saccharomyces species. They show two distinct morphological stages vegetative and reproductive.
• The vegetative state is characterized by hyphae and the reproductive stage can be conspicuous.

Note: Fungi are non-motile with cell walls made up of chitin. They are heterogeneous with the only distinctive feature as they thrive on other organisms.
Fungi lack chlorophyll and hence they cannot produce their food. So they are called saprophytic. There is no embryonic development or stage of fungi.
They develop from spores and can be both sexual and asexual.