Question

Describe the fungus Pilobolus and its method of ensuring its spores will have the opportunity to germinate.   What is unique about this system? What special adaptations do you suppose the fungus has acquired to enable this system? Can you envision any other fungal spore dispersal mechanisms that are similar? Explain. (answer it in detail. 300+ words)

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Answer 1

Pilobolus (hat-thrower fungus) is a cosmopolitan fungus that belongs to a division zygomycota. Atleast five species of fungi in the family Pilobolaceae, order Mucorales are known for their explosive spore dispersal. Pilobolus feeds saprobically on feces of grazing animals and these fungi are diminutive, usually less than 10 mm in height and are characterized by a sparse mycelium produces unbranched sporangiophores capped with black sporangia.

The fungus must pass through the digestive tracts of grazing animals (herbivores) to complete the life cycle. The animals avoid foraging near their excrement, the fungi use a phototropic squirt-gun mechanism to disperse their sporangia up to 3 metres away from the parent fungus. The pilobolus sporangia with a sticky mucilaginous ring that adheres to vegetation when wetted by the propelling fluids. The fungal spores pass through the digestive tract of host unharmed and are deposited into a fresh substrate of dung, thus perpetuating the asexual life cycle.The sporangium of Pilobus survives the gastrointestinal tract without germinating and emerges with the excrement. Spores within the sporangium germinate when it host's outside and grow as a mycelium within the excrement, where it is a primary colonizer.

One of the special adaptation of this fungus is the shape and transparency of the subsporangial vesicle that allows it to act as a lens and focus light into carotenoid pigments deposited near the base of the vesicle. This further absorbs the photons and allow cells to detect the light level in the direction of the lens. The developing sporangiophore grows as maturing sporangium, aimed directly at the light. The asexual fruiting structure, sporangiophore of Pilobolus species is unique and it consists of a transparent stalk which rises above the excrement to end in a balloon-like subsporangial vesicle.

Soprangium of Pilobolus is covered in calcium oxalate crystals,which serves as a protective mechanism and it's hydrophobic nature also leads the sporangium to flip over onto its sticky bottom after landing in a drop of dew, thus allowing it to cling to a plant substrate.

Similar to Pilobolus, the lungworm larvae infect cattle and must move away from the excrement if they are to be eaten by a new host. Lungworm nematode larvae excreted by infected elk, deer, cattle, horses and other hosts climb up Pilobolus sporangiophores and are discharged with the sporangium. The larvae accomplish this by attaching themselves to the Pilobolus sporangia and are ejected from the fungi onto fresh vegetation.