EVERYDAY SCIENCE

Detailed explanation-1: -Some kinds of fungi, such as mushrooms, look like plants. But fungi do not contain chlorophyll, the pigment that green plants use to make their own food with the energy of sunlight. Instead, fungi get all their nutrients from dead materials that they break down with special enzymes.

Detailed explanation-2: -Fungi secrete enzymes that can break down complex organic compounds like carbohydrates and proteins into simpler components with the release of energy. These fungal decomposers, alongside their saprobic bacterial allies, absorb only a small amount of these nutrients and energy for their own use.

Detailed explanation-3: -Fungi and bacteria are not restricted to decomposing leaves and other plant materials. They will decompose any dead organic matter, whether it is a cardboard box, paint, glue, pair of jeans, a leather jacket or jet fuel.

Detailed explanation-4: -Detritivores are organisms that feed orally on dead matter, to gain nutrients and energy. Examples of detritivores: millipedes, earthworms, crabs, flies, etc. Decomposers act on the dead matter, e.g. by secreting the enzymes and digesting the matter externally.

Detailed explanation-5: -Saprotrophic fungi obtain their food from dead organic material; parasitic fungi do so by feeding on living organisms (usually plants), thus causing disease.