The living world is rich and diverse. As you know, it is divided into four kingdoms: Bacteria, Plants, Animals and Mushrooms. Between these groups are just huge gaps. But there is something in common between them, for example, in every kingdom there are saprophytes and parasites. We will understand all this in more detail.
Separation of living beings by type of food
To ensure its existence, every living organism needs to receive certain substances or energy from the outside. The process of consuming these resources is called nutrition.
According to the method of nutrition, all living organisms are divided into two types:
Autotrophs are organisms capable of independently producing the organic substances necessary for them from inorganic ones. These include most plants that extract their own nutrition from carbon dioxide and water using solar energy.
Heterotrophs are creatures that need ready-made organic substances. This is a huge group of living organisms, inside which there are still a lot of classifications. Heterotrophs are divided into biotrophs and saprotrophs. The former feed on living organisms: animals or plants. They also include parasites that have adapted to such a life when their master is both food and home for them.
Saprotrophs also get food from dead creatures or their excreta (including excrement). This group includes bacteria, plants, fungi (saprophytes), and even animals (saprophages). They, in turn, are also divided into different subgroups: detritophages (feeding on detritus), necrophages (consuming animal corpses), coprophages (feeding on feces) and others.
Definition
The word itself is borrowed from another language, more precisely, it is combined from two Greek words: sapros - "rotten" and phyton - "plant". In biology, saprophytes are fungi, plants, and bacteria that use dead tissues of animals and plants as food, as well as products secreted by them in the process of life. They are distributed everywhere - in water, earth, air, as well as in the organisms of living beings.
Most often, saprophytes are individuals that do not harm their master. A person does not even guess what a huge number of different microorganisms are constantly on his skin and inside the body, without causing any disease. However, under the influence of negative factors (decreased immunity, an excessive increase in the number of microbes), everything can change, and saprophytes can cause an infectious disease.
Living world
Saprophytes occupy an important place in the cycle of substances in nature, breaking down complex organic substances into simple ones, cleaning the world from rotting animal remains. Who belongs to this group of hard workers? Saprophytes are quite widespread in the world. Examples of them can be found in every kingdom. They are found in large numbers among bacteria (single-celled protozoa), among fungi (from mold to fungi consumed by humans), among plants (from algae to flowering plants such as orchids).
Saprophytes are also found among animals (we will also name examples of them). However, then it will be more correct to call them saprotrophs or saprophages. In the animal kingdom, some insects (dung beetles, skin-eaters, larvae of flies and other insects), earthworms, many crustaceans (river crayfish, bottom amphipods) belong to saprophytes. Among the large representatives of the animal world, these are birds (crows, vultures, vultures), some fish and various animals (hyenas, bears, and everyone who has to eat carrion).
Saprophytes
Bacteria are organisms so small that they can only be examined with the most powerful microscopes, magnifying hundreds of times. And although in ordinary life a person is not given to see them, one has to face the results of their activities every day. So, thanks to them, the existence of fermented milk products and wine is possible. And while some bacteria cause infectious diseases, others bring great benefits to humans.
Among them can be called, for example, some E. coli and bifidobacteria that live in the human digestive tract. They help the body absorb the nutrients and fight the pathogenic flora.
Saprophytes
Although plants belong to autotrophs (that is, they themselves create nutrition through sunlight), this does not prevent many of them from being simultaneously saprophytes to some extent. For existence, they need additional organic substances from the soil.
Among plants, saprophytes are pineapple, orchid, begonia and some cactus, as well as many mosses, ferns and algae.
Saprophytes
Mushrooms are the oldest inhabitants of the Earth; their history numbers at least one billion years. They are so unusual that for a long time biologists could not decide on their classification and did not know to which kingdom they belong. Indeed, fungi have signs characteristic of both animals and plants. As a result, they were separated into a separate kingdom.
Mushrooms are single or multicellular living heterotroph organisms whose cells have a nucleus (eukaryotes). All mushrooms feed on the absorption of ready-made organic substances from the environment, preliminarily isolating special dissolving enzymes, i.e. digestion occurs outside the body.
According to the method of nutrition, mushrooms are divided into three broad groups: parasites, saprophytes and symbionts. This division is inherent in other kingdoms. Parasites got accustomed to life on other living organisms (or even inside), eating entirely at the expense of them. Among the edible mushrooms, the parasite is a honey mushroom known to all of us.
Symbiotic fungi, although living at the expense of other organisms, but at the same time bring them benefits, secreting the necessary minerals and processing waste. Among them , porcini mushroom, boletus, butterdish, saffron mushroom, brown cap boletus, mushroom and many others.
Mushrooms that feed on organic matter left over from dead animals and plants or their secretions are called saprophytes. Examples of such mushrooms that are familiar to us: morels, stitches, mushrooms, raincoats. Also in this category includes a huge number of mold fungi that infect products.
In order to maximally provide themselves with the necessary nutrition, all these mushrooms have an appropriate structure - long and powerful mycelium, completely immersed in an edible substrate for them.
Saprophyte mites
These small organisms are our permanent neighbors living in house dust. In large quantities, they are right in our bed - in pillows, mattresses and blankets. By themselves, they are unable to do harm, because they do not bite a person and are not carriers of any infections. However, their metabolic products can be dangerous for allergic people.
Saprophytes and parasites are able to completely restore their population in a short period of time, so you should not chase after the methods that promise complete disposal of them. Subject to basic hygiene procedures (washing clothes, timely replacement of mattresses and pillows, wet cleaning of the room), the number of harmful mite-saprophytes can be maintained at a relatively safe level for health.
Conclusion
As we learned, saprophytes are organisms that support their existence through the use of dead organic material. Most of them are harmless, many are useful and only some are dangerous. Be that as it may, their existence in nature is simply necessary, it is they who provide the cycle of matter and energy, without which life would stop.