Rhizopus

• bread mould is saprophytic
• lives on bread and fruit
• hypha - thread like structures - they have no cross walls and are multinucleate
• mycelium - a mass of hyphae - all cells in a mycelium are haploid
• stolon - a hypha that grows over the surface of the food to allow a new mycelium to develop
• rhizoids - create a larger surface area for food to be absorbed - anchor the fungus to the substrate and release digestive enzymes into the substrate and absorb nutrients
• sporangiophore - holds up the sporangium and allows the spores to be easily dispersed
• sporangium - contains the spores
• asexual reproduction is called spores
• sexual reproduction in rhizopus is a method of survival - takes place when two strains of the fungus grow close together - both strains look identical but sexual reproduction can only occur between a plus and a minus strain