What is Rhizopus?
This familiar mold appears with great regularity on bread. The following is a sure and rapid method for obtaining Mucor: Place a glass tumbler in a plate of water, put on the tumbler a slice of bread which has been exposed to the air for a day, and cover with a glass jar. The bread must not become too wet. To obtain a series of stages in the development of the sporangium it is better to use living material. For class work, time the cultures so as to have a plenty of sporangia which have not yet begun to turn brown. For permanent preparations, fix for at least 24 hours in 10 per cent formalin; wash 1 hour in water, and then follow the Venetian turpentine method. Eosin gives good results. Stain over night or 24 hours, treat with 2 per cent acetic acid, changing several times, and then put into glycerin, merely pouring off the 2 per cent acetic acid and not rinsing the acid out in water. When washing out the glycerin, do it with alcohol which has about 0.5 c.c. of acetic to the 100 c.c. o
Rhizopus is a genus of fungi within the Zygomycetes class, a large grouping of fungi which are notable for their method of sexual reproduction. Fungi in the Rhizopus genus are often responsible for zygomycosis, an infection caused by colonization with fungi in the Zygomycetes class. These fungi also have some practical functions, and they can appear in the form of plant pathogens in some regions of the world. This makes them a rather diverse group. Classically, Rhizopus fungi look like cotton candy, with a yellow to green color which darkens when the fungus begins to produce spores. These fungi can reproduce asexually or sexually by creating a zygospore, a fusing of two spores. This ability is unique to fungi in the Zygomycetes class. The spores often burrow into the surface of the substrate, making the mold difficult to remove, since it cannot simply be brushed off. One of the most common forms of Rhizopus is bread mold, R. nigricans. These fungi also appear in fruit, especially stone
