Basidiomycetes: types, classification, structure

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:45

Basidiomycetes belong to the second class of higher fungi. This means that they are endowed with multicellular mycelium, which reaches a complex structure, it is diverse. What are the distinguishing features of basidiomycetes, structure and features? What species are included in this group?

Description

Basidiomycetes have a habitual underdeveloped haploid mycelium that appears during the germination of the basidiospore, as well as a diploid secondary mycelium, it is well developed. The main organ of the fungi under consideration is the basidium. It develops from a binuclear cell. There is a sequential stage - the division of the nucleus, which is divided twice.

These representatives of the class of higher fungi have special reproductive organs - basidia, among them - representatives of thirty thousand species. A mature basidia has four basidiospores, which are located on the sterigmata. When they grow, a haploid mycelium appears. Then the mycelium merges, fruiting bodies develop on one of them, and then meiosis begins in the basidia. It ends with the formation of four nuclei, which pass intobasidiospores.

What are these mushrooms?

Representatives of basidiomycetes can be both edible and poisonous. The first include milk mushrooms, porcini mushrooms, boletus. To the second - pale grebe, fly agaric. There are also species among them that cause putrefactive processes in wood and affect agricultural crops. The structure of basidiomycetes is complex, since they are higher.

There are also parasitic basidiomycetes. They are widespread and cause harm to agriculture. Among these mushrooms are rust and smut. The latter parasitize on various plants, stems, flowers, leaves, fruits, destroying tissues to blackness. Smuts cause great harm to cereals.

Classification

Mushrooms Basidiomycetes are divided into classes based on their structure, sporulation and fruiting body. They are divided into two subclasses: holobazidiomycetes and phragmobasidiomycetes. The first are divided into exobadial, aphyllophoric, agaric and Gasteromycetes. Phragmobasidiomycetes are divided into:

• smut mushrooms;
• rusty;
• trembling;
• Auriculariaceae;
• Tulasnell;
• Dacryomycetes.

In the last four orders, the fruiting bodies have a gelatinous consistency. Their phragmobasidia are divided into four cells. Basidial fungi are considered depending on the type of their basidia. There are more than ten classes of mushrooms, which include:

• agaricomycetes;
• rust mushrooms;
• urediniomycetes;
• smut;
• ustilaginomycetes;
• exobasidiomycetes;
• tremellomycetes.

Places of growth, useful properties

The basidiomycetes are mostly edible mushrooms. They grow mainly in forests (in the wild), have delicious taste and nutritional properties. Edible basidiomycetes can be considered a complete nutritional product. What mushrooms are they?

1. Aspen.
2. Russula.
3. White mushroom.
4. Black breast.
5. Champignons.
6. White, or boletus.
7. Honey mushrooms.
8. Boletus and many others.

Cep has forms and varieties that differ in morphological and ecological characteristics. White fungus grows in spruce groves. The fruit body with a brown cap has light and dark spots. In birch groves there is another variety - a white birch mushroom with a light and grayish cap. You can distinguish it by a thin and long stem.

Pine mushroom boletus grows in pine forests. He has a brownish-cherry leg, short. Oak mushroom grows in oak forests, respectively, its cap is grayish-brown. Higher mushrooms prefer sandy and clay soils. These predominate in deciduous forests. For example, they include garlic. It is consumed both fresh and ready-made, and is also used as a condiment. In the fruiting body of edible mushrooms there are many substances useful to humans. These are carbohydrates, fats, proteins.

Mushrooms contain vitamins such as A, B, C, D, PP. Whites contain a large amount of vitamin C. Mushroom mushroom is also rich in useful trace elements. It also has antibacterial properties.

What they look like, building

There are sixteen classes, fifty-two orders, one hundred and seventy-seven families, more than a thousand genera and thirty thousand species of basidiomycetes in the world. They are mainly saprotrophs and are of great importance in the mineralization of organic compounds. About thirty percent of all fungi are classified as basidiomycetes. Their vegetative body looks like septate mycelium with and without buckles. The cell wall is multilayer, it consists of glucans and chitin. The septa have a complex structure, there are dolipore septa.

Distinguishing Features

Basidiomycetes are multicellular organisms, so they are among the highest. Their hyphae are separated by membranes. According to the type of nutrition, like the lower fungi, they are divided into parasites and saprophytes. Parasitic fungi include tinder fungus and chaga. Both of these species are found on trees, and are also used for medicinal purposes. The main distinguishing feature of basidial representatives is a hat, a leg, a method of reproduction and nutrition; their mycelium consists of cellular hyphae; contain chitin. Outwardly, you can always recognize a fungus that is complex in structure. In the world of hat mushrooms, there are about eight thousand species. Some of them are used in cooking. Poisonous mushrooms are often used for medicinal purposes, some as narcotic andpsychotropic substances.

Reproduction

Basidiomycetes reproduce vegetatively by fragmentation of the thallus, as well as by mycelium. If we compare them with marsupials, then in basidial reproduction by asexual method is not so pronounced, with the exception of rust fungi. The development of the teleomorph proceeds in two stages: the sexual process and the formation of the basidioma. The sexual process is called somatogamy, it is characterized by the absence of germ cells and organs. Basidia are formed with the participation of the buckle.

Where used

Actively used not only edible, but also inedible and poisonous basidiomycetes. In the fruiting body of the latter, dangerous substances, poisons are formed. The heaviest is muscarine. There is a lot of it in fly agaric, satanic mushroom, pale grebe. The class of poisonous representatives consists of twenty thousand species - micromycetes and macromycetes.

Edible mushrooms include those that do not contain any harmful substances that are unpleasant in taste. They can be distinguished by their characteristic pleasant mushroom aroma. Many are edible even raw. Some edible mushrooms have a not very pleasant smell, but taste bitter. In this case, special processing is required (soaking, boiling, drying, s alting). For example, morels and russula are boiled for five minutes. Mushroom fungus also requires processing.

Inedible mushrooms are mushrooms that have a pronounced unpleasant odor, bitter taste, contain harmful substances in the composition. In this case, bad components cannot be destroyed by anyheat treatment. Inedible mushrooms are used as a seasoning (very rarely!), As well as for medicinal purposes.

Another class is poisonous basidiomycetes. They contain toxic substances in their bodies that are dangerous to human he alth and life. There are three groups of poisons. The first representatives include mushrooms of local action (spring mushrooms, false raincoat, bitter russula). They are insidious in that they adversely affect the gastrointestinal tract, the immune system. Fatalities from such a shipment are rare.

The second group of poisonous mushrooms affects the human central nervous system. They are also called hallucinogenic. Representatives include hebelomas, vomiting russula, fly agaric, entolomy.

The third group is the most difficult. Mushrooms, if eaten, destroy the body with toxic substances. A person, even for several days, may not suspect that he has been poisoned, while the cells of the organs are already disintegrating. Among the representatives of poisonous basidiomycetes - pale grebe, spring fly agaric, cobweb and others.