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How do fungi obtain nutrition?
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- Saprotrophic fungi obtain their food from dead organic material and are ecologically useful decomposers.
- Parasitic fungi feed on living organisms (usually plants), thus causing disease.
- To feed, both types of fungi secrete digestiveenzymes into the nutritive surface on which they are growing. The enzymes break downcarbohydrates andproteins, which are then absorbed through the walls of the hyphae.
- Some parasitic fungi also produce special absorptive organs calledhaustoria, to penetrate deeper into the living tissues of the host.