Mycology VIVA Question and Answer

1) What is Mycology?

• It is the study of fungi which includes yeasts and molds.

2) Fungi is prokaryotic or eukaryotic? 

• Eukaryotic

3) Example of a unicellular eukaryotic organism?

• Yeast

4) What are saprophytes?

• Those organisms which depend on( live on) dead and decaying organism are saprophytes. Example: Fungi

5) What is the difference in the cell membrane of fungi and bacteria?

• Sterol is present in the cell membrane of fungi i.e ergosterol
• In bacteria, there is an absence of sterol except in Mycoplasma

6) What is the cell wall of fungi made up of?

• Chitin
• Glucans
• Mannans
• Peptidoglycan is not present in it.

7) Name symbiotic fungi and it’s use.

• Mycorrhizae
• Helps root in absorbing minerals and water from the soil

8) Give examples of yeast:

• Saccharomyces cerevisiae
• Schizosaccharomyces pombe
• Candida albicans
• Cryptococcus neoformans

9) Give examples of mold:

• Penicillium
• Rhizopus
• Aspergillus
• Fusarium
• Mucor
• Cladosporium
• Trichophyton
• Trichoderma 

10) What do you mean by Dimorphic fungi?

• Having two forms i.e. Yeast and Mold
• Temperature-dependent pathogenic fungi are yeast-like at 35 °C – 37 °C and mold like at 25 °C- 30 °C.

11) Give examples of Dimorphic fungi?

• Histoplasma capsulatum
• Candida albicans
• Blastomyces dermatitidis
• Coccidioides immitis
• Paracoccidioides brasiliensis
• Penicillium marneffei
• Sporothrix schenckii

12) What do you mean by polymorphic fungi?

• Fungi that have more than one independent form or spore stage in their lifecycle are called polymorphic fungi.

13) Name one of the enzymes present in fungi and it’s use.

• Cellulase
• Animals cannot digest the hard part of the plant so fungi as a primary decomposer use cellulase enzyme for the decomposition.

14) What is Thallus?

• The thallus is the body or vegetative structure that is present in fungus.
• Its plural is Thalli

15 ) What are hyphae?

• Long, filamentous, and branching structures present in fungi are called hyphae.
• It’s singular is hypha.

16) What are mycelium?

• The filamentous mass of hypha are called mycelium.
• They are visible to the naked eye.

17) What are septa?

• It is the cross wall present in hyphae.
• It divides the hypha into different distinct parts, uninucleate (one-nucleus ) cell-like units.

18) What are septate hyphae? 

• Hyphae which contains septa in it.

19) What are coenocytic hyphae?

• Hyphae which doesn’t contain septa are called coenocytic hyphae.
• Also called Aseptate or Non-septate hyphae.

20) What is hyaline?

• It is non-pigmented hyphae.

21) What is dematiaceous?

• It is darkly pigmented hyphae.

22) What is conidia?

• Conidia mean asexual spores.

23) What are the types of asexual spores?

• Arthroconidia or arthrospores
• Chlamydospores
• Sporangiospores
• Conidiospores
• Blastospores

24) What are the types of sexual spores?

• Zygospore
• Ascospore
• Basidiospore

Read Also: VIVA Alert: Basic Microbiology with mnemonics

25) What are teleomorphs?

• Teleomorphs are fungi that produce both sexual and asexual spores.

26) What are anamorphs? 

• Asexual form in fungi of phyla Ascomycota and Basidiomycota are anamorphs.

27) What are synanomorphs? 

• Fungi that have a different asexual forms of the same fungus are called synanomorphs.

28) What are arthroconidia or arthrospores?

• The spores ( cells) formed by the fragmentation of the hypha are called arthroconidia or arthrospores.
• Fragmentation occurs through the splitting of the cell wall or septum.

29) What are chlamydospores?

• Before the separation, if the cells are surrounded by a thick wall, they are called chlamydospores.

30) What are sporangiospores?

• If the spores develop within a sac at a hyphal tip, they are called sporangiospores.
• The saclike structure is sporangium ( plural: sporangia )

31) What are conidiospores?

• If the spores are produced at the tips or sides of the hypha but are not enclosed in a sac, they are called conidiospores.

32) What are blastospores? 

• The spores which are produced from a vegetative mother cell by budding are called blastospores.

33) General feature of Colonies of yeast :

• Moist
• Creamy
• Opaque or pasty colonies

34) General feature of filamentous fungi or mold :

• Fluffy
• Cottony
• Powdery colonies

35) What is the fungal infection termed as? 

• Mycosis ( plural mycoses )

36) Medical classification of fungi : 

• Superficial and Cutaneous mycoses: fungal infection of the outermost layers of skin and hair
• Subcutaneous mycoses: fungal infection beneath the skin i.e  dermis, subcutaneous tissue
• Systemic mycoses: fungal infection deep within the body
• Opportunistic mycoses: a fungal infection caused by the opportunistic pathogen

37) What is otomycosis?

• fungal infection of the ear

38) What is osteomycosis? 

• fungal infection of the bone

39) Examples of Superficial and Cutaneous mycoses :

40) Examples of Sub-cutaneous mycoses : 

41) Examples of Systemic mycoses : 

42) Examples of Opportunistic mycoses : 

43) What are the commonly used laboratory media for the isolation of fungi from clinical specimen :

Primary recovery media : 

• Brain-heart infusion agar
• Mycosel agar

Differential test media

• Cornmeal agar with Tween 80 and trypan blue
• Czapek’s agar
• Niger seed agar
• Nitrate reduction medium
• Yeast fermentation broth
• Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA)

Reference and Sources

• Tille PM (2014) , Bailey and Scott’s Diagnostic Microbiology, 13th edition, Mosby Elsevier
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