Ionic and Electrical Dimensions of Hyphal Growth

Abstract

Fungal hyphae extend at the apex, by the localized deposition of new plasma membrane and cell wall. We owe this insight to Max Otto Reinhardt (1854–1935), whose classic paper on the growth of fungal hyphae was published just over a century ago (Reinhardt 1892). Ever since then, a small but select company of microbiologists has grappled with the next question: How does apical growth come about? How does a hypha arrange its anatomy and functions so that new envelope is deposited exclusively at the apex? How does the characteristic hyphal morphology, a tube with tapered tip, maintain itself through space and time? How do branches, i.e., new apices, arise? Let us be clear from the outset that this is not primarily a problem in biochemistry, let alone molecular biology. Instead, the issue falls within the purview of physiology, the study of complex systems.