Diversity In Living Organisms — Science STD 9 — Question

Characteristics of Kingdom Fungi:

1. Simple non-green plants which are not photosynthetic. They are heterotrophic and eukaryotic organisms. Some fungi, such as Puccinia, Albugo etc are parasites and draw their nutrients from living cells of their host plants. Some fungi, such as Mucor, Rhizopus etc are decomposers, deriving their nutrition from dead remains of plants and animals.
2. They may be unicellular (yeast) or filamentous (most fungi). The body of a multicellular and filamentous fungus is called a mycelium and is composed of several thread like structures termed hyphae.
3. Fungi have a cell wall containing a mixture of chitin and cellulose. Chitin is a tough complex sugar.
4. Their reserve food material is glycogen.