Three Characteristics That Bread Mold Shares With a Mushroom

When people first think about bread mold and mushrooms, it is difficult to see any similarities between the two organisms; however, these two fungi have a lot in common. They possess three main characteristics that help categorize them into a group of species. These characteristics are crucial to their survival and growth.

Mushroom and Bread Mold Growth

• Mushrooms are found throughout the United States. It takes very little for them to prosper and grow. As long as it is able to receive food and nutrients, the mushroom can survive for long periods. Bread mold is a type of mold that specifically attacks bread and spoils it. Bread as a very short shelf life and because of this, molds appear relatively quickly in bread. All types of bread can get bread mold.

Cell Wall Characteristics

• The cells of the mushroom and the bread mold have the same cell wall characteristics. Their cells have a wall made up of chitin. Chitin is a type of natural protein that is transparent in color. Commonly found among insects, the cells of the mold and mushroom are made of chitin rather than cellulose. Cellulose is the main component of plant cell walls. Because of the chitin, the fungus is not considered a plant and cannot undergo photosynthetic.

Species

• Both mushrooms and bread mold are both different types of fungi. Bread mold is a type of fungus that will grow on multi-cellular organisms such as bread. This type of fungus has Long Branch like projections in its cellular structure and can establish itself on an organism very quickly. Bread mold is considered as a type of microbe fungi and after it has established itself on the bread, it will release certain enzymes that break down the hydrogen bonds found in starch. Since bread is made up of many interconnecting starch molecules, when the bread mold breaks the starch, the bread itself will start to wear away. A mushroom is a fungus itself. It will grow just about anywhere. There are a wide variety of different mushrooms, so much so that the Latin meaning of fungus is mushroom. Both mushrooms and bread molds will grow on nay multi-cellular organism as long as it is able to extract the nutrients from its source. The bread, for example, extracts nutrients from the bread by breaking down the bread's starch molecules.

Reproduction

• Both mushrooms and bread mold reproduce asexually. In asexual production, the organism does not require another of its species to reproduce; rather it can reproduce all on its own. Bread mold and mushrooms like most fungi both reproduce by creating spores that then branch off on their own. These asexual spores have the exact same genetic material as its creator and because of this, they can multiple and create new mushrooms or molds.