A mold or mould is one of the structures that certain fungi can form. The dust-like, colored appearance of molds is due to the formation of spores containing fungal secondary metabolites. The spores are the dispersal units of the fungi. Not all fungi form molds. Some fungi form mushrooms; others grow as single cells and are called microfungi.
Penicillium is a genus of ascomycetous fungi that is part of the mycobiome of many species and is of major importance in the natural environment, in food spoilage, and in food and drug production.
Talaromyces marneffei, formerly called Penicillium marneffei, was identified in 1956. The organism is endemic to southeast Asia where it is an important cause of opportunistic infections in those with HIV/AIDS-related immunodeficiency. Incidence of T. marneffei infections has increased due to a rise in HIV infection rates in the region.
Eurotiomycetes is a large class of ascomycetes with cleistothecial ascocarps within the subphylum Pezizomycotina, currently containing around 3810 species according to the Catalogue of Life. It is the third largest lichenized class, with more than 1200 lichen species that are mostly bitunicate in the formation of asci. It contains most of the fungi previously known morphologically as "Plectomycetes".
The Eurotiales are an order of sac fungi, also known as the green and blue molds. It was circumscribed in 1980.
Talaromycosis is a fungal infection that presents with painless skin lesions of the face and neck, as well as an associated fever, anaemia, and enlargement of the lymph glands and liver.
Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, commonly known as zombie-ant fungus, is an insect-pathogenic fungus, discovered by the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace in 1859, and currently found predominantly in tropical forest ecosystems. O. unilateralis infects ants of the tribe Camponotini, with the full pathogenesis being characterized by alteration of the behavioral patterns of the infected ant. Infected hosts leave their canopy nests and foraging trails for the forest floor, an area with a temperature and humidity suitable for fungal growth; they then use their mandibles to attach themselves to a major vein on the underside of a leaf, where the host remains after its eventual death. The process, leading up to mortality, takes 4–10 days, and includes a reproductive stage where fruiting bodies grow from the ant's head, rupturing to release the fungus's spores. O. unilateralis is, in turn, also susceptible to fungal infection itself, an occurrence that can limit its impact on ant populations, which has otherwise been known to devastate ant colonies.
Hydnellum is a genus of tooth fungi in the family Bankeraceae. Widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere, the genus contains around 40 species. The fruitbodies of its members grow by slowly enveloping nearby bits of grass and vegetation. There is great variability in the form of Hydnellum fruitbodies, which are greatly influenced by environmental conditions such as rainfall and humidity, drying winds, and temperature. They are too tough and woody to eat comfortably. Several species have become the focus of increasing conservation concern following widespread declines in abundance.
Mycena haematopus, commonly known as the bleeding fairy helmet, the burgundydrop bonnet, or the bleeding Mycena, is a species of fungus in the family Mycenaceae, of the order Agaricales. It is widespread and common in Europe and North America, and has also been collected in old Japan and Venezuela. It is saprotrophic—meaning that it obtains nutrients by consuming decomposing organic matter—and the fruit bodies appear in small groups or clusters on the decaying logs, trunks, and stumps of deciduous trees, particularly beech. The fungus, first described scientifically in 1799, is classified in the section Lactipedes of the genus Mycena, along with other species that produce a milky or colored latex.
Microsporum canis is a pathogenic, asexual fungus in the phylum Ascomycota that infects the upper, dead layers of skin on domesticated cats, and occasionally dogs and humans. The species has a worldwide distribution.
Pycnoporus is a genus of fungi in the family Polyporaceae. This genus is distinguished from most other polypores because of its brilliant red-orange color. Modern mycology recognizes five distinct species of Pycnoporus: the type P. cinnabarinus, P. coccineus, P. palibini, P. puniceus, and P. sanguineus. These species are divided somewhat by morphology, biogeography, and DNA sequence.
Mycena aurantiomarginata, commonly known as the golden-edge bonnet, is a species of agaric fungus in the family Mycenaceae. First formally described in 1803, it was given its current name in 1872. Widely distributed, it is common in Europe and North America, and has also been collected in North Africa, Central America, and Japan. The fungus is saprobic, and produces fruit bodies (mushrooms) that grow on the floor of coniferous forests. The mushrooms have a bell-shaped to conical cap up to 2 cm in diameter, set atop a slender stipe up to 6 cm long with yellow to orange hairs at the base. The fungus is named after its characteristic bright orange gill edges. A microscopic characteristic is the club-shaped cystidia that are covered with numerous spiky projections, resembling a mace. The edibility of the mushroom has not been determined. M. aurantiomarginata can be distinguished from similar Mycena species by differences in size, color, and substrate. A 2010 publication reported the discovery and characterization of a novel pigment named mycenaaurin A, isolated from the mushroom. The pigment is responsible for its color, and it has antibiotic activity that may function to prevent certain bacteria from growing on the mushroom.
Mycena minirubra is a species of fungus in the family Mycenaceae. Found only in New Zealand, the fungus produces tiny crimson fruit bodies with caps up to 1 mm (0.04 in) in diameter, atop that stems that arise from a basal disk of mycelium.
Talaromyces is a genus of fungi in the family Trichocomaceae. Described in 1955 by American mycologist Chester Ray Benjamin, species in the genus form soft, cottony fruit bodies (ascocarps) with cell walls made of tightly interwoven hyphae. The fruit bodies are often yellowish or are surrounded by yellowish granules. A 2008 estimate placed 42 species in the genus, but several new species have since been described.
Penicillium cecidicola is a fungus species of the genus of Penicillium which produces pentacecilide A, pentacecilide B, pentacecilide C.
Penicillium purpurescens is a species of fungus in the genus Penicillium which was isolated from soil in Canada. This species is similar to Penicillium glabrum. Penicillium purpurescens produces hadacidin.
Penicillium roseopurpureum is an anamorph species of fungus in the genus Penicillium which produces Carviolin.
Rasamsonia is a genus of fungi in the family Trichocomaceae, circumscribed in 2011 by mycologists Jos Houbraken and Jens Frisvad. It is characterized from other genera of the Trichocomaceae by the following combination of features: species are thermotolerant or thermophilic; their conidiophores have distinctly rough-walled stipes; conidia are olive brown; and ascomata, if present, have minimal covering. Rasamsonia phenotypically resembles Paecilomyces, in that both have thermotolerant species, produce olive-brown conidia, and form ascomata with no or scarce ascomatal covering; Rasamsonia, however, differs from Paecilomyces in having more regularly branched conidiophores with distinct rough-walled structures. The type species is Rasamsonia emersonii, a fungus formerly classified in the genus Talaromyces.
Epicoccum nigrum is a species of fungus in the phylum Ascomycota. A plant pathogen and endophyte, it is a widespread fungus which produces coloured pigments that can be used as antifungal agents against other pathogenic fungi. The fluorescent stain epicocconone is extracted from it.
Fallacinol (teloschistin) is an organic compound in the structural class of chemicals known as anthraquinones. It is found in some lichens, particularly in the family Teloschistaceae, as well as a couple of plants and non lichen-forming fungi. In 1936, Japanese chemists isolated a pigment named fallacin from the lichen Oxneria fallax, which was later refined and assigned a tentative structural formula; by 1949, Indian chemists had isolated a substance from Teloschistes flavicans with an identical structural formula to fallacin. Later research further separated fallacin into two distinct pigments, fallacin-A and fallacin-B (fallacinol). The latter compound is also known as teloschistin due to its structural match with the substance isolated earlier.
