Mycology Laboratory Exercise

1. From the list of terms provided, write the correct term beside each of the drawings
below:

Arthroconidia Blastoconidia
Zygosporangium Granular (or powdery) texture
Basidiospore Vegetative hyphae
Ascospore Macroconidium
Racquet hyphae Sessile chlamydoconidium
Dimorphism Verrucose topography

Zygosporangium Blastoconidia Racquet hyphae Macroconidium

Verrucose Ascospore Vegetative hyphae Sessile

topography chlamydoconidium

Granular (or powdery) Dimorphism Basidiospore Arthroconidia

texture

2. A patient is seen by his physician for a hard, nonmoving nodule below the skin on
his right index finger. There are no other symptoms. The infection is most likely:
 a. superficial c. subcutaneous
b. cutaneous d. systemic

3. In each blank, write the letter of the correct answer from the list provided.

The taxonomic phylum Zygomycota is distinct in that the hyphae are usually _D_. The
typical asexual reproductive structures are _G_, and the sexual stage is characterized by
the formation of _C_.

a. septate e. ascospores
b. basidiospores f. arthroconidia
c. zygospores g. sporangiospores
d. aseptate

4. Why should you not accept 24-hour collections on respiratory secretions?

__A 24 hour collection on respiratory secretions can become overgrown with bacterial
contaminants and fungal opportunists easily__

5. For each of the procedures below list the main advantage.

a. lactophenol cotton blue wet mount

_Stains and kills organisms; used to stain cell walls of medically important fungi
grown in slide cultures _

b. potassium hydroxide preparation

_clears up most cellular debris without affecting fungus chitinous cell walls_

b. Gram stain
_used to search of the yeast form of Histoplasma capsulatum within cells in blood
smears or bone marrow preparations_

c. acid-fast stain
_used to stain bacteria with high lipid (mycolic acid) and wax content in their cell
walls that normal stains can not_

d. India ink preparation

_Negative stain that creates a dark background against which yeast appears to be
surrounded by halos (clear polysaccharide capsules that resist the stain). It is
primarily used in the detection of the encapsulated yeast, Cryptococcus neoformans_

e. calcofluor white stain

_ Binds to chitin and cellulose and fluoresces when exposed to ultraviolet light. It can
also clear debris and stain the fungal elements_