BRAINCAKEArea and Mass of Fungi
Moulds such as Penicillium grow as long, branching threads called hyphae, which form a tangled network called a mycelium. Their cells are not separate, so they cannot be counted with a haemocytometer or by dilution plating. Instead, growth is measured as an increase in area or mass.
Area of a colony
A fungal colony on an agar plate spreads outwards as a roughly circular patch. Measure its diameter with a ruler across the base of the plate. Colonies are rarely perfect circles, so measure two diameters at right angles and take the mean. Then calculate the area:
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Key terms in this lesson
- biomass
- The total mass of living material in an organism, population or sample.
More in Bacteria and Disease
- Growing a Pure Culture
- Counting the Number of Cells
- Turbidity
- Dilution Plating
- Growth of Bacterial Colonies
- Logarithmic Scale
- Exponential Growth
- Bacterial Toxins
All 30 lessons in Bacteria and Disease · All Edexcel A-level Biology topics