Field Guide To Important Penicillium Yeasts
Penicillium is probably one of the most notable genera of yeasts/fungi. Penicillium has over 250 named species, and a fundamental structure in they all follow. Chances are you definitely encountered it if you’ve ever left the bread to mold, or ever taken antibiotics. Yes, this is the well-known genera that Fleming discovered antibiotics from all those years ago. Overall, this genera is large consisting of those that are Good, bad, drug producers, and cheesy ones.
The Basic Structure
Simplified the structure of Penicillium is a stalk with this bowling pin shape structure known as phialides in clusters at the tip. At the very tip are the conidia which are basically asexual spores that allow the genera to reproduce without needing another host/species. This is amazing because in harsh conditions they can just reproduce by themselves in this way.
Taxonomy
Before you try to figure out what Penicillium you have it’s important to know its taxonomic name. So these fungi fall under the Phylum Ascomycota which is the largest fungi phylum with over 64,000 species. Its Class is Plectomycetesis and its order is…
