Fungal Cell Wall Composition — NEET Biology
✅ Asked in NEET 2016With the exception of yeasts which are unicellular, fungi are filamentous. Their bodies consist of long, slender thread-like structures called hyphae. The network of hyphae is known as mycelium. Some hyphae are continuous tubes filled with multinucleated cytoplasm – these are called coenocytic hyphae. Others have septa or cross walls in their hyphae. The cell walls of fungi are composed of chitin and polysaccharides.
NTA tests students on the exact components of fungal cell walls: chitin and polysaccharides. This is distinct from plant cell walls (cellulose) and bacterial cell walls (peptidoglycan), so many students confuse them. A common trap is selecting 'cellulose' as the fungal wall component because fungi appear plant-like. Remember: chitin is the same polymer in insect exoskeletons—it's hard, protective, and uniquely fungal. This concept appears frequently in classification questions comparing fungi to plants and bacteria.
This paragraph was tested 2 times in NEET.
One of the major components of cell wall of most fungi is NEET 2016
Which one of the following is wrong for fungi? NEET 2016
Through deep analysis of NEET and NTA, 88 of 90 questions from the NEET 2026 paper were matched straight from the MedicNEET Biology question bank.
88/90MedicNEET's Biology question bank is built from the same NCERT lines NTA picks repeatedly. Not random MCQs — questions crafted exactly like NTA crafts them.