How to prevent mold growth, and some of the characteristics of mold
Mildew is the common name for filamentous fungi, which means "moldy fungus". The mold structure can be divided into two main parts: mycelium and sporophyte. Mycelium is often white, brown, gray, or brightly colored. Colonies that are white and hairy are mucor, green are penicillium, yellow are aspergillus flavus, and some produce pigments that stain substrates (i.e. skin, cloth, paper, etc.). In order to adapt to different environmental conditions and more effectively absorb nutrients to meet the needs of growth and development, the mycelia of many molds can differentiate into some special forms and tissues, which is called mycelia metamorphosis.
Fungal mycelium growing on a solid substrate can be divided into 3 parts:
① Trophic mycelium: deep into the matrix, absorb nutrients;
② Aerogenic mycelium: the mycelium growing into the air by vegetative mycelium;
③ Reproductive mycelia: some airborne mycelia develop to a certain stage, differentiate into reproductive mycelia and produce spores. Mold is extremely fertile and can reproduce in a variety of ways.
Although any fragment of mycelium can develop into a new individual under the right conditions, in nature, molds reproduce mainly by producing a variety of asexual and sexual spores. Spores are a bit like the seeds of a plant, but very numerous and very small. The asexual spores of mold are formed directly from the differentiation of reproductive mycelia, and the common ones are arthrospores, chlamydospores, sporocyspore and conidia.
Mold spores have the characteristics of small, light, dry, many, different shapes and colors, long dormant period and strong stress resistance, etc. The number of spores produced by each individual is often tens of thousands, sometimes even tens of billions, hundreds of billions or more. These characteristics help mold spread and multiply throughout nature. For human practice, these characteristics of spores are conducive to inoculation, expanded culture, breeding, preservation and identification of strains, but the disadvantage to human is that it is easy to cause pollution, mildew and mold diseases that are easy to spread animals and plants.
