Mold Quiz

b) To recycle organic matter through decomposition and mineralization. In fact, everything lignin-containing can only be dissolved by saprophytic fungi, without which life on this planet wouldn’t be possible due to sheer amounts of debris formed by undecomposed plant material.

Nutrient cycle (Photo source: Jakob Assmann)

a). Molds are multicellular, filamentous organisms that belong to the kingdom of Fungi.

c). Moisture is the crucial ingredient for mold to thrive. Generally, the most common reasons for indoor mold spread are plumbing and roof leaks, wet basements, bad yard drainage, and high humidity.

a) 30-50%. Studies show that consistent associations of dampness with adverse health effects, strongly suggesting a causation by dampness-related exposures.

a) 13%, and the most common types (in more than half cases) are from the Penicillium/Aspergillus group.

e) All of the above. Prolonged exposure to molds can induce many different health problems, with intensity depending from mild irritations in healthy people to life-threatening infections in immunocompromised patients.

c). Applying bleach to a mouldy wall will only contaminate the space with dangerous evaporations. Bleach only destroys the superficial part of the organism, while the rest of the mold and its spores can survive and continue to spread.

b). Penicillin, the first antibiotic, was isolated and discovered in 1928 by Dr. Alexander Fleming from Penicillium mold.

a). Rhizopus fungi create black mold spots on old bread. It is never safe to eat mouldy bread as ingesting black mold can cause nausea, vomiting, and allergic reactions.

b) Lobsters, because the shell of arthropods (crustations, insects, spiders, and such animals) and the cell walls of fungi (molds) are made of chitin, a structural polysaccharide (sugar) molecule.

The cell wall structure of Fungi (Photo source: Maya and Rike, Wikimedia)