The Mycelium as an Integrated Entity

Abstract

The morphology of a mycelium is determined by mechanisms which regulate the polarity and the direction of growth of hyphae and the frequency with which they branch. As implied by Pfennig (1984), these regulatory mechanisms make a significant contribution to the efficiency with which fungi colonise solid surfaces. Observation of a colony developing on a solid medium shows that hyphae grow radially outward from the inoculum with leading hyphae at the colony margin growing approximately parallel to one another and at approximately the same distance apart. The growth kinetics observed during the development of mycelia on solid media appear to be common to all molds, and even extend to filamentous streptomycetes (Allan and Prosser 1983, 1985).