Question

3. What might the world be like if there were no molds? 4. Name some beneficial and detrimental aspects of molds. 5. Given an agar plate, how might you visually differentiate bacterial colonies from fungal contaminants? How would you differentiate these groups under the microscope? 6. What is an opportunistic infection, and why is it important? 7. Define superficial and systemic mycoses, and provide some examples Lab 24-Molds

Answer 1

3. Research suggests that along with plants fungi also play a role in forming an oxygen-rich atmosphere. Molds cause the breakdown of organic matter, which is highly important for nutrient cycling which would not occur when molds disappear. Thereafter development of an ecosystem was established by fungi several million years ago. Several molds are responsible for diseases, some of the diseases would not exist. There would be a lack of decomposition of organic matter and nutrient cycling, which would lead to waste being accumulated and an imbalance of the ecosystem, which would make it difficult to support life.

4. Molds are beneficial in that they decompose organic matter called detritus. Penicillin one of the key antibiotics was obtained from Penicillium, which was an important beneficial finding. Some molds produce organic acids of key importance.

Indoor Molds are basically allergens and are responsible for causing several diseases also attributes to causing cancer. Aflatoxin is a toxin released from Aspergillus sp.

5. The basic difference is the colony morphology, by looking at the colonies we can differentiate between bacteria and fungi. There are marked differences in color, size, shape, and outline of bacterial and fungal colonies. Fungi have the ability to spread over the media in the petri dish, while bacteria form small colonies. Under a microscope for fungus branches or hyphae can be seen which are absent in case of bacteria.

6. Opportunistic infections take advantage of the abnormal state of host, for example, a weak immune system, breakdown of external infection barriers. These infections attack the host when the host is in a state of poor health conditions. They are important in people suffering from HIV since these people have a weak immune system they are readily attacked byseveral disease-causing microbes, It is important to prevent these infections.