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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Penicillium digitatum topic - https://allaboutbiologyworld.blogspot.com/2017/04/todd-has-been-sick-short-tale.html

Thanks!

Todd has been sick! Short tale

Growing Penicillium digitatum on Todd ( an orange )

Under general environment 

As you can see the green parts indicates the development of conidiophores
and as well as the fruiting bodies which carry the spores

Under general environment, an orange named Todd was left for a while infront of a window a couple of days and symptoms of fungal infection was seen ( white color ) as the beginning, it indicates the sprouting of spores to hyphae which then forms a network of mycelium and later on forms the fruiting bodies which carry the spores at that time it becomes green in color.

The mold scientific name is Penicillium digitatum

The main causal agent of fruit-rot to citrus fruits ( e,g, orange as in our case) the green mold disease, also it is a major post-harvest disease which should be taken into consideration when harvesting our crop.

A mesophilic fungus which prefers temperatures between 15*C-45*C, of Division: Ascomycota 

Following a strict means of clean and sanitized storage, handling and packaging can ensure the least infection, removal of any infected plants quickly before the mold grows and infects other fruits comes in handy, applying specific fungicides in particular concentrations and much more from chemical and biological controls can be found in the following website:http://www.plantwise.org/KnowledgeBank/Datasheet.aspx?dsid=39570

Culturing it, due to the limited resources I have since of my inability to afford tools for culture media, I have used Gelatin, I bought a strawberry Jelly, prepared it and inoculated a sample of the fungi in it and after 5 days leaving the petri dish in room temperature, results were:

My very first culture media

This was Todd after a week from the last picture shown

Needed to be contained

Observing the mold structure under optical microscope

The following clip ( I DON'T OWN IT - Copyrights goes to its owner) shows a fastened footage of the mold on a lemon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1Bzi7T8-HQ

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