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Food
Many fungi are used as food such as mushrooms and truffles. Yeast, a type of fungi, is used when baking bread to help it rise and to ferment beverages. -
Decomposition
Fungi play an important role in the decomposition of organic matter. This decomposition is necessary for many of the cycles of life such as the carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen cycles. By breaking down organic matter, fungi release carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen into the soil and the atmosphere. -
Medicine
Some fungi are used to killed bacteria that can cause infections and disease in humans. They make antibiotics like penicillin and cephalosporin. -
Alexander Fleming
Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928 using fungi -
Species
There are over 1,5 million species of fungi. -
Roman Empire
In the Roman Empire begins to know the use of mushrooms. -
Characteristics of Fungi
They are eukaryotic.
They get their food by decomposing matter or eating off their hosts as parasites.
They do not possess chlorophyll like plants.
They reproduce through numerous spores rather than pollen, fruit, or seeds.
They are usually not motile, meaning they cannot actively move around.
