• Question: what the diffrence between a fungi and a bacteria

    Asked by nicholas2959 to Angela on 16 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Angela Stokes

      Angela Stokes answered on 16 Nov 2014:

      Hi Nicholas2959

      Many living things are so small that they can only be seen through a microscope. These living things are called microorganisms or microbes. There are three main types of microbe:

      fungi
      bacteria
      viruses

      Fungi
      Mushrooms and toadstools are fungi, but these are made of lots of cells, so they are not microbes. Yeasts are single-celled fungi, so they are microbes. Fungi are usually the biggest type of microbe. If there is just one of them, we call it a fungus.

      Bacteria
      Bacteria are usually smaller than fungi. If there is just one of them, we call it a bacterium. Bacteria have many different shapes. Some have ‘tails’ (called flagella) that let them swim.

      Viruses
      Viruses are the smallest type of microbe. As a virus can only reproduce inside a cell, some people are not convinced that viruses are really living things.

      Differences between fungi, bacteria and viruses
      a) Fungi have a cell wall, a cell membrane and a cell nucleus
      b) Bacteria have a cell wall, a cell membrane but have a chromosome and no nucleus
      c) Viruses have no cell wall, no cell membrane and no cell nucleus. They have a protein coat and a strand of DNA instead of a nucleus or chromosome

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