Basic Structure of Fungi (of Rhizopus- bread mould)

• Rhizopus: fungus that occurs on food e.g bread, cake and fruit
• Multicellular and consists of a mass of branched filaments of hypae
• Hyphae are interwoven to form vegetative body, the mycelium
• Mycelia is made up of hyphal cells which have walls containing chitin
• Rhizopus is a thallus, as it has no true roots, steams and leaves
• Three Types of Hyphae

  1. Runners/ stolons- branch horizontally on surface of substrate (bread)
  2. Rhizoids- branches of stolon that penetrate the substrate and anchor the mycelium (roots)
  3. Sporangiophore- grow up vertically and develop sporangia on their tips to produce spores
• Structure of Rhizopus