We are used to calling boletus mushrooms, which look great on a table set for dinner. But about them true nature We talk only in botany lessons or in rare “pseudo-scientific” conversations. The structure, way of existence, and especially the reproduction of mushrooms for most of the population remain “a mystery shrouded in darkness.” Yes, this is a special topic. But it is advisable for an educated person to have a minimal understanding of everything. Isn't it?
Description of a living organism
Before delving into the entertaining and confusing topic of “Methods of Mushroom Propagation,” let’s find out what they are. This is important and very
Interesting. Looking ahead, let's say that the propagation of mushrooms is not an easy process. You can’t describe him like this in two words. But let's take things in order. Fungi are living organisms that share characteristics of both plants and animals. A kind of symbiosis of both. Their kingdom is huge! It includes the fungi themselves and mycoids (so-called mushroom-like organisms). Currently, more than one hundred thousand of their species are known, although scientists are confident that they have studied only a third of those existing in nature. This hypothesis can hardly be questioned, since the existence and reproduction of fungi, as it turns out, can take place in the most difficult and unimaginable conditions. Science has come to the conclusion that these do not have common roots with plants. They originated from special microorganisms that lived in the ocean. Fungi are similar to plants in their cell wall structure, stationarity, ability to reproduce by spores, and synthesis of vitamins. In addition, they absorb from the soil nutrients. They also have common features with animals. Namely: mushrooms accumulate glycogen as a reserve, secrete urea, and are not able to create nutrients themselves.
A little about the structure
To imagine the reproduction of mushrooms, you need to know what they look like. After all, it is not clear what exactly will be recreated. Mushrooms mostly consist of a vegetative body. This is not at all what we see and collect. This organism in fact, it is a huge mass of thin, colorless threads, called “mycelium” or “mycelium”. It is divided into two parts.
Since this is a whole separate world of living organisms that have no “relatives” among animals and plants, it exists in its own way. Reproduction of fungi can be sexual, asexual or vegetative. Some of their species give birth to their own kind by budding. That is, almost all methods known to science are available. If we look in more detail, then here too there are some peculiarities and nuances.
So, mushrooms occur in mycelium. A single cell of this thread can form a separate organism. In addition, in order to “continue the race,” these organisms create special processes - the reproductive organ. In mushrooms it appears mainly during warm, humid periods. Those elements from which a new organism can develop are called diaspora.
Vegetative propagation of mushrooms
These organisms can even emerge from a single cell, which is a diaspora. Most often, a part is separated from the mycelium, which becomes an independent organism. With this method, a reproductive organ is not needed. Mushrooms just have a part
the mycelium separates from the main organism, buds off, so to speak. A new one grows out of it. The mycelium of some varieties can also form oidia (light shoots of threads). From them a new organism emerges. This is a kind of transitional form from vegetative to asexual reproduction. It is impossible to see this process in nature. Everything happens in the soil (the environment where the mycelium grows).
Asexual reproduction
This process is more open. It is carried out through disputes. They are very small and light. They do not sink in water, are carried by the wind, and stick to animal fur. That's how they travel. Once in suitable conditions, they begin to develop. Spores are divided into resting and propagative, mobile and immobile. Low-organized fungi are equipped with a more aggressive reproduction mechanism. They are characterized by motile spores equipped with a flagellum. They can fly up to a thousand kilometers. The asexual reproduction of fungi that we are accustomed to occurs through immobile spores. They are also different. For simplicity, we will divide them into endogenous and exogenous. The first are formed inside sporangia. These spores have a dense shell. The quantity depends on the specific type of mushroom. Some fungi have only one spore (conidia). The methods of their formation are very diverse. For the most part, they form on the tips of conidiophores.
Sexual reproduction
There are variations here too. mushrooms can pass in various ways associated with the formation of the zygote. One of them is gametogamy. This method is typical for low-organized mushrooms. It can be interpreted as
fusion of two cells (gametes). In some species they are the same, in others they differ in size. Gametes also differ in mobility. That is, nature “trained” on mushrooms, developing methods of reproduction. These types of organisms lack traditional oogamy (immobile female and mobile male cells). Sexual reproduction of fungi can take place in the form of gametogamy. This method is typical for highly organized organisms. Somatogamy is the most typical type of sexual reproduction in fungi. The process is that the spores germinate and fuse with shells, then with nuclei. From them a new organism develops.
About cap mushrooms
The theory is, of course, interesting, but to understand the processes it is advisable to “feel” an example. Let's consider reproduction. We can see and explore them. What people collect for food are called fruiting bodies. Their mushrooms are grown to organize the reproduction process. In science they are also called “sporation organs.” They consist of a cap and stalk, which are dense bundles of hyphae. The spores are at the top. The hat has two compartments. The upper one is dense, covered with colored skin. The bottom layer is hidden under it. In some species it is lamellar, in others it is tubular. This layer contains spores.
For example, russula and champignons have a lamellar structure, while boletus and boletus mushrooms have a tubular structure. Up to millions of spores mature in this layer. They spill out onto the soil and are carried by the wind or animals, insects, or water. This is how the reproduction process takes place.
Why are mushrooms cut and not pulled out?
Since people are engaged in collecting “sporation organs,” they, against their will, interfere with the reproduction process of these organisms. If you simply take away the “bag of seeds,” a new mushroom will grow. In fact, it is huge and creates not one, but
many “spore-bearing organs”. And when we pull out saffron milk cap or boletus, we cause enormous damage to the mycelium (the mushroom itself). It takes a long time to restore it. It may turn out that it will not grow in a given area. Therefore, it is necessary to carefully trim the stem so as not to harm the mycelium.
Scientists are very carefully studying these living organisms. They are not just observed, many experiments are carried out on them. Some of which are shocking. Thus, it is known that Japanese researchers came to the conclusion that yellow yeast is intelligent. They conducted an experiment in which they forced this organism to grow in a “labyrinth” where sugar was hidden. It turned out that the yellow mold “remembers” the path it took to get to the treat. A shoot taken from this organism grew straight to the place where the sugar was! But this is just simplest mushroom, which reproduces vegetatively.
Perhaps every amateur gardener would be interested in growing mushrooms in the country or in the garden.
You can, of course, go to the store and buy what they offer there. But the selection of mushrooms on sale is very limited, and they are not always fresh and tasty.
You can go into the forest and pick mushrooms in their natural habitat. But you can only find what grows in this forest, plus the success of the event is highly dependent on the weather; after all, no one waters wild mycelium, for example, porcini mushroom in a drought.
In addition, not everyone has a forest nearby, while most people visit their dacha regularly.
Mushroom cultivation is a topic that is becoming more and more popular every year.
Each mushroom always grows only in certain conditions. Some mushrooms, such as morels or dung beetles, love warm, open areas and clearings, while others, such as white mushrooms, most often grow in the shade of trees.
Most mushrooms consist of 90% water (substantially less in polypores), so the most important condition for their successful development is high humidity.
In the scorching sun, any mushrooms dry out very quickly, so, as a rule, the place for growing them is summer cottage or in the garden it is better to choose shady and as moist as possible.
At the same time, we should not forget that mushrooms still need light; it sets the direction of growth of the fruiting bodies. Without light they also grow, but worse, irregular in shape and color.
Light is not needed for the development of mycelium or mycelium, so royal mycelium or overgrowing blocks and stumps can be kept in complete darkness (for example, in a basement).
So, the ideal place for planting most mushrooms is the shade of trees in the garden, the north side of the house or barn.
If there are difficulties with the availability of such places, you can create a similar area yourself using a shading mesh, agrofibre, or just a piece of slate.
You also need to remember that mycorrhizal mushrooms: porcini, boletus, saffron milk caps, chanterelles and many others grow only in symbiosis with certain trees.
Boletus will never grow under a cherry tree, and garden entoloma will never grow under aspen or poplar.
For saprophytes (oyster mushrooms, champignons, honey fungus, shiitake, reishi and others), the proximity to a particular plant does not matter.
Good mushroom harvest when using a special solution
One of the ways to obtain fungal seed material is to prepare a spore solution (spore suspension). To do this, you need to take the mushrooms (it’s better if they are slightly overripe), break the caps and soak them in water for a day.
Mycorrhizal mushrooms are best collected under the trees under which they are planned to be grown. garden plot.
There is also a method for activating spores using yeast. Any yeast is added to the sweetened water in which pieces of mushroom caps are soaked to cause fermentation.
Subsequently, areas that are promising for growing the selected type of mushroom are watered with this solution.
The mushroom seed, spores, fall into the ground with water, where they germinate and form a mycelium if the event is successful.
Spore cultivation method
Mushrooms reproduce both vegetatively (using parts of the mycelium or mycelium) and sexually: using spores.
Fungal spores are microscopic and produced in huge quantities; different types can produce hundreds of millions or even billions of spores.
Therefore, it makes sense to use this method for growing mushrooms in your own summer cottage.
The simplest option is to simply scatter pieces of caps or peel mushrooms of interest in a suitable place in the garden or vegetable garden.
The spores can be collected to be transported to another location or stored for future use.
To do this, place the opened mushroom cap on a sheet of paper or foil and leave for 12-24 hours, after which the cap should be removed.
The resulting spore print must be dried at room temperature, then it can be placed in a plastic bag for storage.
In the future, spores from the leaf can be scraped off with a sharp object and used to prepare a solution or simply scattered in a suitable place in the garden.
Spore prints can even be made on clothes that are used as work clothes in the garden, so the spores will constantly disperse throughout the area.
There is a possibility that some of the sown spores will germinate and form a mycelium. The more caps or spores used for seeding, the higher the chances that they will grow.
Reproduction by mycelium
A very effective method is the propagation of mushrooms by mycelium. Unlike sowing spores, this method gives a more predictable result.
The mycelium of many mushrooms can now be purchased in garden stores or online: oyster mushrooms, champignons, shiitake mushrooms, honey fungus (flammulina) and others.
You will also need a substrate for growing. Champignons love compost, which is prepared from straw and bird droppings or cow dung.
The cooking process is quite labor-intensive. With oyster mushrooms everything is much simpler: it can be grown on straw, sawdust, hemp and even cardboard.
A simple way to organize a “mushroom bed” is as follows.
In a suitable place (shaded and moist), a shallow (10-15 cm) hole of the required length and width is dug.
Cardboard pre-soaked in water is placed on the bottom, a layer of mycelium is poured on top, then there is a layer of soaked straw or sawdust (you can mix these components), then again a layer of mycelium, and so on.
The bed can be covered with cardboard while the substrate fouls.
Caring for a mushroom “plantation” involves periodic watering by sprinkling, especially in the hot season.
The substrate should always remain moist, but not wet.
How does the mycelium take root?
Wild saprophytic mushrooms (purple row, oyster mushroom, winter honey fungus, fungus and many others) can be propagated by pieces of mycelium brought from the forest.
Prerequisites Mycelium development is food and water.
Food for fungi that live on dead wood can be leaves, sawdust, straw or cardboard.
Having found a mushroom of interest in the forest, you can take part of the mycelium from which it grows, bring it to the site and plant it in wet sawdust or on soaked cardboard, cover it with a layer of sawdust or cardboard on top.
The mycelium should not dry out during transportation from the forest, so it is advisable to immediately put it in a plastic bag and plant it as quickly as possible.
If the outcome is successful, after some time the mycelium will begin to grow in a new place and master the substrate offered to it.
Growing boletus and honey mushrooms
The real (or ordinary) buttercan is a mushroom widespread in the Northern Hemisphere.
Prefers sandy soils and grows exclusively in symbiosis with pine. It grows in any pine plantings, it loves young pine trees, so when planting or having pine trees in a summer cottage, it makes sense to try growing boletus.
Everyone will benefit from such a neighborhood: the trees, the mushrooms, and the owners of the dacha.
The best way is to sow spores by watering with a spore suspension or scattering pieces of mature mushroom caps under pine trees. It is unlikely that it will be possible to grow boletus from mycelium or part of the mycelium.
You need to be careful when growing honey mushrooms in your summer cottage.
This fungus can even attack young healthy trees.
Unlike the autumn honey fungus, there are its harmless brothers:
- winter honey fungus (flammulina),
- summer honey fungus,
- poplar honey fungus (Agrocybe).
These fungi are saprophytes and feed only on dead wood.
They can be grown on stumps, sawdust ( hardwood), straw and so on.
The easiest way to propagate honey mushrooms is with mycelium, if you can purchase it. For infesting stumps or logs, mycelium on sticks is the best choice.
In a piece of log (it is advisable to use deciduous trees, the wood must be fresh and clean, without rot or rottenness), holes of a suitable diameter are drilled in a checkerboard pattern.
As a rule, a drill with a diameter of 9 mm is suitable for standard mushroom sticks on furniture dowels.
Sticks with mycelium are placed in the holes and covered with plasticine or soft clay.
It is undesirable to use garden varnish, as it contains substances that inhibit the development of fungi. During the fouling period, the hemp should be placed in a damp place with a constant temperature, for example, in a basement.
You can simply lay it in the shade, but be sure to monitor the moisture content of the wood and periodically moisten it by sprinkling.
After becoming overgrown with mycelium, the stumps are dug in (at ⅔ height) in a shady area of the garden. It is also advisable to keep the soil around them moist.
Features of care and harvesting of oyster mushrooms
Oyster mushroom is perhaps the most common and accessible mushroom to grow even at home.
The simplest way grow oyster mushrooms yourself - buy ready-made mushroom block.
There are many such advertisements on the Internet. Detailed instructions on cultivation can be obtained from the seller.
In the purchased block, 4-5 cuts are made evenly (if they do not already exist) about 5 cm long, after which it is placed for incubation in a dry, warm room (+18 +20°C), light is optional.
Or similar conditions should be provided outside: a dry, shady place. After overgrowing with mycelium (usually 14-20 days), the block is sent for fruiting.
For the formation of oyster mushroom fruiting bodies, high humidity, good air exchange and a fairly low temperature (+10 +20°C, depending on the strain) are required, therefore best time Autumn is the best time to grow this mushroom outdoors, when nature itself creates suitable conditions.
High-quality oyster mushroom grain mycelium is also commercially available, which can be used to infect stumps (similar to honey mushrooms) or create “mushroom beds” near vegetables or trees.
Suitable substrates include straw, sawdust from deciduous trees, sunflower husks, corn cobs, and cardboard.
The main condition is that the substrate must be kept moist and in the shade or at least partial shade.
The relatively low price and availability of oyster mushroom mycelium make it possible to conduct a variety of experiments on growing this mushroom in a summer cottage.
It is advisable to cut oyster mushrooms for consumption before they become overripe.
In such mushrooms, the edges of the cap completely unfold, a brown border appears on them, and a light spore powder is formed.
How to grow chanterelles
Yellow chanterelle (real) is a symbiont mushroom. For successful fruiting, the formation of mycorrhiza with a certain tree is required.
Most often these are oak, beech, spruce, pine, and birch.
If you have any of these trees on your site, you can try to sow chanterelle spores by scattering pieces of old mushrooms or watering the soil with a prepared spore solution (suspension).
The chances of growing yellow chanterelle from mycelium or mycelium are very low.
Growing porcini mushrooms (boletus)
The dream of every amateur gardener is to grow porcini mushrooms on personal plot.
But it's not that simple. Boletuses are mycorrhiza-formers and bear fruit only if they create a symbiosis with a suitable tree.
It is known that the pine white fungus (Boletus pinophilus) forms mycorrhiza mainly with pine, but also with spruce, oak and beech.
The spruce porcini mushroom (Boletus edulis) has the greatest preference for spruce, pine, birch and oak.
Success can be achieved by collecting wild adult or even overripe mushrooms and sowing the spores under trees of the same species under which they were collected.
White, which is found under a pine tree, makes sense to plant also under a pine tree, and so on.
You can sow spores by scattering pieces of mushroom caps, preparing a spore suspension and watering the soil with it, you can also scatter spores from a collected and stored spore print.
Growing boletus mushrooms from mycelium or by transferring mycelium most likely will not work.
Boletus (redhead)
Boletus (boletus, redhead) is a name that unites several species of the genus Leccinum.
All of them are mycorrhizal fungi.
Red boletus forms mycorrhiza with aspen, pine boletus - only with pine, yellow-brown boletus - with birch, oak boletus - with oak.
Having the listed trees on the site and having found the appropriate type of boletus, you can sow spores from the collected imprint, scattering pieces of old mushroom caps or preparing a spore solution.
Using mycelium or mycelium is unlikely to be successful.
How to grow boletus
The boletus is also a symbiont. As you can guess from the name, it forms mycorrhiza with birch.
There is information that this mushroom grows in large quantities in young birch trees, so when planting birch on your site, you can try sowing boletus mushrooms.
An advisable method is scattering spores, watering with a spore solution, or scattering pieces of overripe mushrooms or peelings under the birches.
Growing saffron milk caps
The most common species found in our forests is pine saffron.
This is a mycorrhizal fungus that is “friends” with pine and prefers sandy soils.
It is even found in pine plantings, so if you have pine trees in your summer cottage, you can try growing this species.
Spruce camelina forms mycorrhiza, respectively, with spruce.
It is advisable to breed saffron milk caps using spores, pieces of old mushrooms, cleaning or watering the soil with a spore suspension.
CherryLink plugin not foundKira Stoletova
To save money and get environmentally friendly products, people grow in their dachas (adapting for this utility rooms) various crops, including mushrooms. They are easy to grow both in the garden and indoors. To effectively organize the growing process, you need to understand what mushroom propagation is and what the specifics of this process are.
Features of the structure of mushrooms
Before we talk about methods of reproduction of fungi, you need to understand what these organisms are. They combine some of the characteristics of animals and plants, which is why they were united into a separate kingdom - Mushrooms. After much debate, scientists who could not decide what species they should be classified as, assigned a separate kingdom to mushrooms.
Initially, this group of organisms lived in the waters of the oceans. After some time, for unknown reasons, they changed their habitat, moving to the forest. They are united with the kingdom of Plants:
- ability to reproduce by spores;
- absorptive method of nutrition;
- presence of a cell wall;
- the presence of vacuoles in the cell;
- unlimited growth, etc.
They are related to the kingdom of Animals:
- metabolic product - urea;
- absence of plastids (including chloroplasts);
- heterotrophic nutrition;
- the presence of chitin in the cell wall;
- reserve nutrient - glycogen, etc.
Not everyone has an idea about the structure of a mushroom. It consists of mycelium (mycelium, or vegetative body), which plays an important role in the process of reproduction, and the reproductive organs themselves. The mycelium is underground. It consists of thin, colorless threads through which nutrition occurs.
It is difficult to find another organism that could adapt so well to environmental conditions.
Mushroom propagation
Reproduction of mushrooms united into a separate large kingdom occurs in 3 ways:
- vegetative;
- asexual;
- sexual.
Those. They reproduce using all methods known to science today.
Vegetative method of propagation
This method is convenient to use when growing crops in the country, in the basement or on mushroom farms. Its essence lies in the division of the mycelium. Some parts of a certain size are separated from the main vegetative body and placed in an environment where they begin to develop separately. This is the fastest method, often found in the wild.
Feature vegetative propagation fungi is that many species produce arthrospores (oidia) and chlamydospores. These cells give rise to new mycelium. Oidia are formed as a result of the breakdown of hyphae. Each such cell gives rise to a new mycelium. A special feature of chlamydospores is that these cells are covered with a dense membrane, sometimes colored in a color different from the color of the mycelium. This shell stores nutrients that allow the cell to “wait out” unfavorable conditions. Chlamydospore remains viable for 7-10 years.
But division through the formation of oidia or chlamydospores is not considered a purely vegetative method. It is classified as a cross between vegetative and asexual reproduction mushrooms
Budding occurs when a new growth appears on the mycelium, which grows over time and becomes a separate organism. At first, the kidney has microscopic dimensions. Among higher organisms, budding is rare, but representatives of the lower class (yeast-like, for example) often use it.
Asexual method of reproduction
In the asexual method, fungi reproduce through microscopic spores. Propagation by spores is similar to using seeds, but planting material more difficult to assemble. Spores are carried not only by the wind, although most often they travel with air currents, but also stick to animal fur. The interesting thing is that these microscopic particles do not sink. When placed in a favorable environment, they develop, forming mycelium.
Spores can form inside or on the surface of spore-bearing organs. They also differ in structure. Some spores are equipped with flagella that allow them to move and are called zoospores. Others do not have such flagella; they are immobile and are called sporangiospores.
Irina Selyutina (Biologist):
Many lower fungi are characterized by the presence of motile zoospores. Zoospores develop in sporangia. Other lower fungi are characterized by sporangiospores that develop in sporangia. Sporangia sit on special hyphae that differ from other hyphae - sporangiocartes. They rise up from the substrate on which they developed. This elevated arrangement of sporangia facilitates the dissemination of spores by air currents after the sporangium shell has developed.
Asexual reproduction with the help of conidia has been described for marsupials, basidioecious fungi, imperfect fungi, and a few lower fungi adapted to terrestrial existence. Conidia are covered with a membrane, they do not have flagella - organs of movement; distribution occurs with the help of air, insects, and humans.
An interesting thing is that the spores grow into copies of the parents with minor mutations.
Spores are intended only to increase the population.
If you look at the number of representatives of the kingdom, you can see that even with the asexual method of reproduction, significant changes species. This is due to the fact that several generations grow over the course of a season, each of which has some changes. And ultimately, minor mutations of each generation lead to the emergence of new species.
Sexual method of reproduction
From the name it is clear that we are talking about the process of merging. During sexual reproduction of fungi, male and female cells (gametes) merge. But this happens in the second stage of reproduction. The first stage involves the formation of these cells. During the process of fusion, spores arise, from which a new organism is formed. In the asexual method, the formation of spores does not involve cell fusion, which is their difference. Cells intended for sexual reproduction may have the same appearance, but may differ.
It is interesting that lower fungi that reproduce by cell fusion immediately produce a sexual spore. Representatives of the upper class first form mycelium, which is somewhat different from that from which mushrooms appear. This method is also typical for marsupial fungi. But in them, cell fusion occurs directly inside the bag (ascus). The cell formed inside the bag is capable of dividing and forming new spores.
The main role in reproduction by any means is played by the mycelium, which is located underground. If you harvest by cutting off the fruiting body, the mycelium remains intact, because you left part of the stem in the soil. Within 14-20 days it is able to grow a new fruiting body filled with spores. If, during harvesting, the fruiting body is pulled out of the ground (attention! it is pulled out, not twisted), the integrity of the mycelium is violated. It will take a lot of time to restore this organ. The duration of recovery depends on the area of the damaged part of the mycelium.
In cap mushrooms, the spores are located under the cap (on its lower side). The part of the fruiting body where spore formation occurs is called the hymenophore. The layer with spores can be tubular or lamellar. The tubular type of surface assumes the presence of many tubes tightly adjacent to each other, in which the spores are placed. It is impossible to see these tubes without a microscope, which is why the surface looks like a sponge. People call them not tubular, but spongy. The lamellar hymenophore is clearly visible without magnifying instruments. In addition to the types of hymenophores that are familiar to us, there are several more, but we usually use only two, known from school.
Supposedly, there are one and a half million species of mushrooms on earth, which belong to different families, orders and classes. The average person, as a rule, is only interested in forest representatives of the mushroom kingdom. It is vital for a mushroom picker to know which mushrooms are edible or conditionally edible, and which are deadly. The propagation of mushrooms is a secondary issue, and most people far from botany imagine this process very vaguely.
Quiet Kingdom
Scientists have studied and described about one hundred thousand species from the countless mushroom kingdom. Mushrooms live not only in the forest, but in oceans and rivers, in the air and earth, on food, human skin, plants and animals. They feed on organic matter, turning them into minerals. necessary for the growth of other plants.
Together with bacteria, fungi perform the most important function for the existence of life on the planet: they utilize organic matter, being an important participant in the global cycle of substances. Experts have calculated that in just 30 years the entire Earth will be completely buried under the remains of dead animals and plants if organisms that feed on organic matter suddenly disappear.
The beneficial properties of mushrooms do not end there: animals are fed and treated with them, and humans widely use them in cooking as food. In the food industry they are used for fermentation and fermentation. In medicine, it is to them that humanity owes the emergence of antibiotics, which helped defeat the devastating influenza epidemics and other deadly diseases.
Mycelium and fruiting body
Reproduction of mushrooms by spores is a simple but ingenious mechanism invented by nature. Spores are mononuclear reproductive cells that the fungus scatters around itself in millions. Light spores fly through the air, sometimes rising to a height of up to three kilometers, stick to human skin or animal fur, do not sink in water, so they can end up hundreds of kilometers from their place of origin.
Of the huge number of fungal reproductive cells, only a few produce offspring. In order for a new mycelium to appear, two spores of different sexes must enter the nutrient substrate together under favorable external conditions. Certain humidity and temperature indicators are required. Forest mushrooms reproduce by spores that are located on the surface of hollow tubes and plates located on the cap.
For vegetative procreation special conditions not required: in this case, mushrooms, like many plants, reproduce in two ways:
- By dividing the mycelium. Individual mycelial hyphae disintegrate into isolated short cells: thick-walled chlamydiospores or thin-walled arthrospores, they are also often called oidia. From these cells new mycelium develops.
- By budding. From the processes of the mycelium, hyphae or cells begin to bud, which give life to the fungus.
The sexual method of reproduction is found in higher fungi, which have an underground system of heterosexual filamentous hyphae. Biologists usually assign opposite signs to them: minus or plus. Such hyphae unite and form a secondary binuclear mycelium, from which the mushroom fruiting body grows.
The sexual mechanism of reproduction is much more complicated than vegetative or asexual, but has an advantage over them: the fungus receives a double set of chromosomes from its parents. A new, more successful combination of acquired characteristics can increase the viability of fungal offspring.
to the word grub, which meant “hump”, “hill”, “hillock”. For comparison, this is also where the name of the hump-nosed pigeon breeds comes from - “mushroomed”.
In some Russian dialects, all mushrooms are called the word lips, but to a greater extent this applies to the popular names of some tinder fungi - “lips”, “sponges”. In this form the word passed into some Slavic languages, for example, into Czech ( hoby) and Slovak ( huby). Latin fungus comes from Greek σφογγος , also denoting a sponge, a porous body.
Another interpretation derives the word “mushroom” from the verb “row” (“row”) - when growing, the mushroom is “raked” out of the ground.
A connection with Old Russian is also possible glib- mucus, sticky substance (compare with the Lithuanian word gleivės, having the same meaning). This root passed into the South Slavic languages: Slovenian gliva, Serbian giva. In Ukrainian glyva- name of oyster mushroom.
Systematic position and origin
For a long time, fungi were classified as plants, with which they are similar in their ability to unlimited growth, the presence of a cell wall, adsorptive nutrition, for which they have a very large external surface (rather than phagocytosis and pinocytosis), and the inability to move. But due to the lack of chlorophyll, fungi are deprived of the ability for photosynthesis inherent in plants and have a heterotrophic type of nutrition characteristic of animals, they deposit glycogen, and not starch as a storage substance, the basis of the cell wall is chitin, not cellulose (except for oomycetes), they are used in metabolism urea - all this brings them closer to animals. They are distinguished from both animals and plants by the presence in many groups of a dikaryonic phase and perforations in the intercellular septum.
As a result, fungi have been recognized as a separate independent kingdom, although they have a polyphyletic origin from various flagellated and non-flagellate unicellular organisms. The latter gave rise to zygomycetes, from which higher fungi are derived. Oomycetes may have evolved from heteroflagellate algae. Forms close to modern ones appeared a very long time ago; spores similar to those of Saprolegniaceae are 185 million years old.
Structure
Most fungal cells have a cell wall; only zoospores and vegetative cells of some primitive fungi lack it. 80-90% of it consists of nitrogenous and non-nitrogenous polysaccharides; in most, the main polysaccharide is chitin, in oomycetes it is cellulose. The cell wall also includes proteins, lipids and polyphosphates. Inside there is a protoplast surrounded by a cytoplasmic membrane. The protoplast has a structure typical of eukaryotes. There are storage vacuoles containing volutin, lipids, glycogen, fatty acids (mostly unsaturated) and other substances. One or more nuclei. Different groups have different predominant ploidy stages.
Classification
There is currently no generally accepted classification of fungi, so the information given in the literature or other sources may vary significantly among different authors.
Asco-, basidio- and deuteromycetes are often combined into the group Higher fungi ( Dikarya).
Other small groups are also distinguished.
Role in biocenosis
Fungi can live in a variety of environments - soil, forest floor, water, decaying and living organisms. Depending on the method of consumption of organic substances there are:
Meaning for humans
Food use
Edible mushrooms
Various are used in the food industry microscopic fungi: Numerous yeast cultures are important for the preparation of vinegar, alcohol and various alcoholic beverages: wine, vodka, beer, koumiss, kefir, yoghurt, as well as in baking. Mold cultures have long been used to make cheeses (Roquefort, Camembert), as well as some wines (sherry).
Due to the high content of chitin in mushrooms, they nutritional value small, and they are difficult to absorb by the body. However nutritional value The benefits of mushrooms lies not so much in their nutritional value, but in their high aromatic and taste qualities, which is why they are used for seasonings, dressings, in dried, salted, pickled form, and also in the form of powders.
Poisonous mushrooms
Mushrooms and preparations made from them are widely used in medicine. For example, in Eastern medicine they use whole mushrooms - reishi (ganoderma), shiitake, cordyceps, etc. folk medicine Preparations from porcini mushrooms, veselka, some tinder fungus and other species are used.
The list of official preparations contains numerous preparations from mushrooms:
- substances extracted from the culture medium of penicillium and other fungi (used in the production of antibiotics).
Use for hallucinogenic purposes
Some types of mushrooms contain psychoactive substances and have a hallucinogenic effect, so ancient peoples used them in various rituals and initiations; in particular, fly agaric mushrooms were used by the shamans of some peoples of Siberia.
Use as pesticides
Preparations based on micromycetes.
Many fungi are capable of interacting with other organisms through their metabolites, or by directly infecting them. The use of agricultural pesticides from some of these fungi is being considered as an opportunity to control pest population sizes agriculture, such as insect pests, nematodes, or other fungi that damage plants. For example, entomopathogenic fungi are used as biopesticides (for example, the drug Boverin from Beauveria bassiana, other drugs from Metarhizium anisopliae, Hirsutella, Paecilomyces fumosoroseus And Verticillium lecanii (=Lecanicillium lecanii). Fly agaric has long been used as an insecticide.
Technical Application
The production of citric acid based on biotechnology - microbiological synthesis - has become widespread.
Damage to the farm
A large number of different pathogenic fungi are known to cause diseases of plants (up to 1/3 of the growing crop and during storage are lost annually due to their fault), animals and humans (dermatoses, diseases of the hair, nails, respiratory and genital tract, and oral cavity). They cause severe food poisoning. Wood-destroying fungi cause rapid destruction of wood materials, buildings and products, and therefore are considered pathogenic in forest phytopathology.
Literature
- "Funghi", - Instituto Geografico De Agostini, Novara, Italy, 1997
- Bondartseva M.A. Key to mushrooms of Russia. Order Aphyllophoraceae. St. Petersburg: Nauka, 1998. Vol. 2
- Garibova L.V., Sidorova I. I. Mushrooms. Encyclopedia of Russian nature. - M.: 1999
- Garibova L.V., Lekomtseva S.N. Fundamentals of mycology (morphology and taxonomy of fungi and fungi-like organisms). M.: KMK, 2007
- Gorlenko M.V. etc. Mushrooms of the USSR. - M.: 1980
- Dyakov Yu., Shnyreva A., Sergeev A. Introduction to fungal genetics. M.: Academy, 2005
- World of plants. in 7 volumes / Ed. A.L. Takhtajyan(chief ed.) and others. T. 2. Mushrooms. / Ed. M.V. Gorlenko. 2nd ed., revised. - M.: Education, 1991. - 475 pp., 24 sheets: ill. - ISBN 5-09-002851-9
- Tobias A. Morphology and reproduction of fungi. M.: Academy, 2006
- Fedorov F.V., Mushrooms. - M., Rosagropromizdat
- Cherepanova N.P. Taxonomy of fungi. - St. Petersburg: SSU Publishing House, 2005