Ed and Rhizopus stolonifer, an agony tale

Mycology #2

Rhizopus stolonifer (Bread mold)

under general environment

Rhizopus stolonifer has grown on a piece
of bread - the black spots indicate the
formation of sporangium (spore sac)

The fungus was grown under general environment, a piece of bread was cut, put in a small box containing some water, which accelerated the growth of Rhizopus stolonifer or in other words the black mold which usually attacks bread. 

It is considered to be a mesophilic fungus since it rapidly grows between temperatures of 15*C - 30*C.

It's classification, Division: Amastigomycota 

                               Sub-division: Zygomycotina

                                 Class: Zygomycetes

And this class by which this fungus belongs to are characterized by

1. Terrestrial.
2. Doesn't form any type of swarm spores ( they are spores that have mobility function (motile) which has a flagellum used for locomotion)
3. Spores are dispersed either by air or by soil.
4. Each fungus consists of mycelium ( somatic structure of the body) which form filamentous hyphae  have large proportion of chitin)  - Mycelium is a network of hyphae
5. The cell wall is formed of chitin
6. Saprophytic ( little parasitism on plants and animals )
7. Reproduce asexually by sporangiospores which are non-motile formed within sporangium (sac) reproduce by conidia ( single or chain cells present on the top of conidiophores)
8. Reproduce sexually by Zygospore due to 2 sex organs similar in shape, size, and aren't differentiated from each other but physiologically different.

The following pictures discuss the structure of the fungus under microscope ( made by me) 

Sporangiophore and sporangium

Structure of Rhizopus stolonifer under microscope

Life cycle of Rhizopus stolonifer

Source: http://bioweb.uwlax.edu/bio203/2011/olbrantz_chri/reproduction.htm

Source: Microbiology course no. 07201

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