Figures
A zygospore formed during sexual development of the pathogenic fungus Mucor circinelloides visualized by scanning electron microscopy.
M. circinelloides is a human pathogenic zygomycete and has a bipolar mating system with (+) and (−) mating types. When co-cultured, strains of opposite mating type recognize each other and sexual reproduction occurs, resulting in the formation of zygospores. Zygospores are the dormant, stress-tolerant stage, and are thick-walled and enveloped by repeated asterisk-like structures, resulting in considerable structural rigidity. After a long period of dormancy from months to a year, zygospores of some species can germinate to produce progeny. Zygospores are morphologically distinct from asexual sporangiospores produced by sporangia (see Li et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1002086).
Image Credit: Valerie Knowlton, North Carolina State University; and Joseph Heitman and Soo Chan Lee, Duke University
Citation: (2011) PLoS Pathogens Issue Image | Vol. 7(6) June 2011. PLoS Pathog 7(6): ev07.i06. https://doi.org/10.1371/image.ppat.v07.i06
Published: June 16, 2011
Copyright: © 2011 Heitman, Lee. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
M. circinelloides is a human pathogenic zygomycete and has a bipolar mating system with (+) and (−) mating types. When co-cultured, strains of opposite mating type recognize each other and sexual reproduction occurs, resulting in the formation of zygospores. Zygospores are the dormant, stress-tolerant stage, and are thick-walled and enveloped by repeated asterisk-like structures, resulting in considerable structural rigidity. After a long period of dormancy from months to a year, zygospores of some species can germinate to produce progeny. Zygospores are morphologically distinct from asexual sporangiospores produced by sporangia (see Li et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1002086).
Image Credit: Valerie Knowlton, North Carolina State University; and Joseph Heitman and Soo Chan Lee, Duke University