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Fungal Morphology & Classification

There are three main forms of fungal hyphae: nonseptate hyphae that lack internal walls, septate hyphae with uninucleate cells separated by walls, and septate hyphae with multinucleate cells containing multiple nuclei. Fungi are classified into four main categories based on cell morphology: yeasts which are unicellular and reproduce by budding, yeast-like fungi which can be unicellular or multicellular and reproduce by budding or spores, molds which are multicellular and reproduce asexually by spore production, and dimorphic fungi which can take either a mycelial or yeast-like form depending on temperature.

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50 views3 pages

Fungal Morphology & Classification

There are three main forms of fungal hyphae: nonseptate hyphae that lack internal walls, septate hyphae with uninucleate cells separated by walls, and septate hyphae with multinucleate cells containing multiple nuclei. Fungi are classified into four main categories based on cell morphology: yeasts which are unicellular and reproduce by budding, yeast-like fungi which can be unicellular or multicellular and reproduce by budding or spores, molds which are multicellular and reproduce asexually by spore production, and dimorphic fungi which can take either a mycelial or yeast-like form depending on temperature.

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There are three forms of hyphae such as

● Nonseptate, or coenocytic, these types of hyphae have no septa.


● Septate with uninucleate cells
● Septate with multinucleate cells, Each cell contains more than one
nucleus in each compartment.

Fungi are classified into three main classes based on

A.Morphological classification

B.Taxonomical classification

C.Pathological classification

A.) MORPHOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION OF FUNGI

Fungi are categorized into four classes based on cell morphology:

a. Yeast
b. Yeast-like fungi
c. Molds
d. Dimorphic fungi

Yeasts – Characteristics:-

● Yeast is a Unicellular fungus with a single nucleus that reproduces


asexually by budding
● Example Saccharomyces cerevisiae

● Each bud that separates can potentially grow into new yeast.
● In the culture media, it appears macroscopically as creamy mucoid
colonies.
● Microscopically the shape signifies oval to round which are 3-15 microns
in diameter.
● The most important pathogenic yeast is Cryptococcus neoformans.

Yeast-like fungi – characteristics:-add image

● These are unicellular to multicellular fungi that reproduce by budding


/fission or by spores..
● Macroscopically appears as pasty colonies on the culture media.
● Microscopically appears as spherical or oval structure; filamentous
structures may be seen due to the chains of elongated budding cells
joined end to end (pseudohyphae) in tissues and in culture.
● For e.g. – Candida albicans.

Molds – Characteristics:-

● Multicellular fungi reproduce asexually by spore production ; some


exhibit sexual reproduction.
● Molds mainly composed of Hyphae which may have cross-walls or septa
or asepta (coenocytic).
● Macroscopically appears as cottony/ wooly/ velvety/ granular growth on
the culture media.
● Microscopically appears as thread-like filamentous.Hyphae (2-10
microns) seen in tissues and in culture.For e.g. – Penicillium notatum

Dimorphic fungi – characteristics:-

● Many fungi, especially those that cause disease in humans and animals
are dimorphic i.e. they have two forms.They reproduce either as
mycelial or yeast-like .
● The mycelial form grows at 25 degree celsius,and the yeast-like form at
37 degrees celsius.
● Example: Blastomycosis dermatitidis

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