Question

Coenocytic mycelium is
A. Uninucleate, septate
B. Multinucleate, septate
C. Multinucleate, aseptate
D. both (b) and (c)

Answer 1

Hint:A coenocytic cellis a multinucleate cell which can result from the nucleus repeatedly dividing but not the cytoplasm. The individual cells in coenocytic mycelium are not separated by a cell wall.

Complete answer:
Hyphae are a structural part of the fungi. It is used to reach the soil and other surfaces, to secrete enzymes, to break down organic material and to absorb nutrients. Another part of the fungus, mycelium, is made up of hyphae networks that cluster together and form the vegetative component of the organism that is usually found in mushrooms. Mycelium produces spores that give rise to further hyphae. Hyphae can be a septate or an aseptate. There are perforated cross-walls called septa to differentiate cells within the hyphae. But the septa are not found in the hyphae of all fungi.

Septate hyphae are hyphae that consist of cells separated from each other by cell walls. There are no cell walls in aseptate hyphae and their nucleus extends throughout the hyphae.

Coenocytic hyphae are non-septate, often called aseptate, meaning they are a long cell that is not separated into compartments. Coenocytic hyphae have many nuclei dispersed throughout the cytoplasm along with ribosomes, the Golgi apparatus and the endoplasmic reticulum.

Thus, the correct answer is option C i.e., Multinucleate, aseptate.

Note:Coenocytic hyphae have septa, but they are just at the branching stages. This protects the whole tubular mass from being affected if one hypha is damaged.