Mold

A mold is one of the structures certain fungi can form. The dust-like, colored appearance of molds is due to the formation of spores containing fungal secondary metabolites. The spores are the dispersal units of the fungi. Many of these spores are colored, making the fungus much more obvious to the human eye at this stage in its life-cycle.
Molds cause biodegradation of natural materials, which can be unwanted when it becomes food spoilage or damage to property. They also play important roles in biotechnology and food science in the production of various pigments, foods, beverages, antibiotics, pharmaceuticals and enzymes. Some diseases of animals and humans can be caused by certain molds: disease may result from allergic sensitivity to mold spores, from growth of pathogenic molds within the body, or from the effects of ingested or inhaled toxic compounds (mycotoxins) produced by molds.
Dependencies[edit | edit source]
- Food
- Mold
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This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Mold, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (view authors). | ![]() |