Question

What is coenocytic hyphae?

Answer 1

Hint: Hyphae is a tubular like filament having both cytoplasm and cell wall found in fungi. Coenocyte is a term used for multicellular organisms which are multinucleate, continuous masses of protoplasm covered by one cell wall with no separation.

Complete answer:
 Hyphae are a structural component of fungi which are used for anchorage to the soil and other surfaces and absorbing nutrients. The word Coenocytic has come from the Greek word Koinos which means common and kytos meaning box or cell. This type of hyphae results due to nuclear division within a cell without cytokinesis.
A coenocytic cell is 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. These are aseptate as they are long cells which are separated by compartments.
The hyphae may be septate or aseptate. The coenocytic hyphae are separated within a cell which means that they are a long cell not divided by any compartments.
Coenocytic hyphae allows faster transport of nutrients as compared to the septate hyphae as there is a continuous cytoplasm present in coenocytic hyphae.
If there is any problem with coenocytic hyphae the entire hyphae will not live as there is no barrier to inhibit the cytoplasm leaking whereas in septate hyphae only a compartment will have problems and not the whole hyphae.

Additional information:
The septate hyphae are divided into compartments. They have pores in between the cells to allow the flow of nutrients and cytoplasm all over the mycelium.
Primary septa is formed during the nuclear division of the cell and separates the nuclei from the parent cell. Adventitious septa are not formed at the time of nuclear division and are produced when there is a problem in the concentration of cytoplasm.
Pseudohyphae are produced when there is an incomplete budding process where the cells elongate but they are not able to separate. It is mostly seen in yeast.

Note: The network of hyphae together makes mycelium and forms the vegetative part of fungi like Mushroom. Coenocytic hyphae contains nuclei which is in the scattered matter, with ribosomes, Golgi apparatus and endoplasmic reticulum present there.
-Coenocytic hyphae have septa and it is found in the branching point and it inhibits the whole tubular mass from being infected if one hyphae is affected.