In this article we will discuss about the vegetative body and reproduction of rhizopus which belongs to class phycomycetes.
Vegetative Body of Rhizopus (Fig. 148):
The aerial multinucleate and coenocytic mycelium consists of rather coarse hyphae and is differentiated into stolons and rhizoids.
The stolon is an aerial hypha that grows more or less horizontally above the substratum for some distance, and then bends down to the substratum forming a tuft of repeatedly branched, dark-coloured rhizoids. Just exactly opposite the point of origin of the rhizoids, there arise from the stolon a tuft of vertically erect and unbranched sporangiophores bearing globose sporangia containing dark-coloured spores.
Reproduction in Rhizopus:
Rhizopus nigricans reproduces both asexually and sexually and the modes of reproduction agree with those of Mucor mucedo in essential details. Furthermore, the fungus is also heterothallic and the formation of the zygospore is dependent on hyphae of two different sexes coming in contact with each other.
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