David Fuller

David Fuller 5/15/09 st 1 hour biology

Title: Bread Mold Problem: What is the structure of bread mold and how does it develop? Materials: 1, Student’s mold culture 2. One-day old Rhizopus 3. Culture in Petri dish 4. Hand lens 5. Microscope 6. Dropper 7.forceps 8. Slide 9. Cover slip

Procedure: 1. Examine your mold with a hand lens, and examine the color and other various aspects of it. 2. Identify the sporangia and the spore cases found on the bread mold. 4. Using the forceps, transfer a small portion of the bread mold to the cover slip. 5. Add water to the slide. 6. Examine the different aspects of the mold.

Data: See attached sheet.

Discussion: While looking at the mold, I smelled a horrid smell. While examining the mold you could noticed that it was white with a yellow-ish tint to it. In my opinion, the food source of the mold is the food in which it inhibits. What was also interesting was the presence of a thin cell wall running across the hyphae that was slowly moving. As far as we observed, the mold was living a very active mold life. If we had wanted to culture mold by rubbing it on the floor and exposing it to bacteria then keeping it in a moist condition, we could indeed develop the mold. Conclusion: On the whole, the mold appeared very interesting in the sence of its color, smell, and strange growing patterns in which it had. I officially now am even more grossed out by mold.