Question

What is so special about fungi?

Answer 1

Fungi are eukaryotic organisms that have a kingdom of their own. They have characteristics similar to plants as well as some characteristics which are totally unique to themselves such as the presence of chitin in their cell wall.

Complete answer:
Fungi were originally considered under the plant kingdom since, like plants, they were also immobile and also have similarity in general morphology and growth habitat. But later they were categorized into a different kingdom since they have unique characters which are quite different from plants. Fungi have characteristics similar to animals as well such as they lack chloroplast and are also heterotrophic like animals. Fungi consists of a membrane bound nucleus that stores the DNA along with other membrane bound organelles such as mitochondria and ribosomes. The cells of fungi grow like tubular, elongated and thread-like structures known as hyphae. Fungi can be single-celled form such as the yeast whereas some have both the hyphal form and the yeast form. Fungi are special because of the following reasons-
1. Fungi can cure diseases such as the antibiotic produced from Penicillium notatum that is effective against a wide range of gram positive bacteria.
2. Fungi can cause disease, many fungi are associated with diseases such as ringworm, athlete’s foot, etc.
3. Fungi are important to the environment because they act as decomposers of dead and organic matter.
4. Fungi can be used as a pest control to get rid of insects and nematodes that cause harm to the important agricultural crops.

Note-
Thus fungi can be both useful and harmful which is also a unique property of fungi that makes fungi so special along with different characteristics that they possess. Few of the fungi are also used as edible food, the most popular one being mushrooms.