NEET BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -In 1998 scientists discovered that fungi split from animals about 1.538 billion years ago, whereas plants split from animals about 1.547 billion years ago. This means fungi split from animals 9 million years after plants did, in which case fungi are actually more closely related to animals than to plants.

Detailed explanation-2: -Fungi are more like animals because they are heterotrophs, as opposed to autotrophs, like plants, that make their own food. Fungi have to obtain their food, nutrients and glucose, from outside sources. The cell walls in many species of fungi contain chitin.

Detailed explanation-3: -Reason 3: Molecular Evidence Demonstrates Fungi Are More Closely Related to Animals Than to Plants. The proposed separation of fungi and plants is indisputably supported by molecular evidence. Computational phylogenetics comparing eukaryotes revealed that fungi are more closely related to us than to plants.

Detailed explanation-4: -We are also likely to call a mushroom a plant, whereas genetic comparisons place fungi closer to man than to plants. In other words, the DNA in fungi more closely resembles the DNA of the inhabitants of the animal kingdom. We are nearly 100% alike as humans and equally closely related to mushrooms.

Detailed explanation-5: -Stamets explains that humans share nearly 50 percent of their DNA with fungi, and we contract many of the same viruses as fungi. If we can identify the natural immunities that fungi have developed, Stamets says, we can extract them to help humans.