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Characteristics of Fungi: Sexual Reproductive Structures

When fungi go into reproductive mode and start producing spores, they oftentimes produce the spores in what we generically call fruiting bodies. I mentioned mushrooms before. That’s actually a type of reproductive structure and thus a fruiting body of a fungus. In this particular case, we have a fungus called Septoria. It’s causing a fruit spot on a cucumber fruit, and the little black blobs that you can see in this photo are the fruiting bodies of that particular fungus. And, I have one right next to a black arrow in this particular slide. And, if you pluck those off. . . And this is what I spend a lot of my time doing in the lab, is plucking these off, putting them on a microscope slide in a drop of water and then squishing them open, and that will release the spores.

This particular structure that you see here is kind of a spherical sort of structure. There is technically a pore at the top, and when you break it open, out pop these little tiny spores, actually not that tiny. They’re actually quite elongated and they look kind of like cooked spaghetti.

This particular structure that you see here is kind of a spherical sort of structure. There is technically a pore at the top, and when you break it open, out pop these little tiny spores, actually not that tiny. They’re actually quite elongated and they look kind of like cooked spaghetti.