Summary:
- Fungi are heterotrophic: they rely solely on carbon obtained from other organisms for their metabolism and nutrition.
- Fungi have evolved in a way that allows many of them to use a large variety of organic substrates for growth, including simple compounds such as nitrate, ammonia, acetate, or ethanol.
- Parasitic fungi use enzymes to break down living tissue, which may cause illness in the host.
- Disease-causing fungi are parasitic.
- Mutualistic fungi live harmlessly with other living organisms.
- A mycorrhiza is a symbiotic association between a fungus and the roots of a plant.