Question

What are two types of fungi that you can most easily cultivate in a laboratory?

What are two types of multicellular animal parasites (MCAPS) that you can most easily cultivate in a laboratory?

Answer 1

Ans: (1) Two types of fungi that can be easily cultivated under laboratory conditions are: Molds and Mushrooms.

Molds- One of the common and easy to cultivate mold is the Rhizopus stolonifer commonly known as black bread mold. It falls under the phylum zygomycota (conjugated fungi). It is distributed globally and is one of the primary decomposing agent of stored food and grows mostly in indoor environments. The fungi is dependent on sugar or starch that can be given in the culture medium for its growth, nutrition and reproduction. Commercially it is used in producing alcohols and manufacturing organic acids.

Mushrooms- Mushroom like Agaricus bisporus commonly known as button mushroom is an edible fungi that is easy to cultivate. It falls under the phylum basidiomycota (club fungi). It is a nutritional and medicinal species that provides good dietary benefits to humans. It can be cultivated in lignocellulosic materials. Under favourable temperature, light, pH and culture medium it yields good fruit bodies.

Ans :(2) The technique of cultivation is an important method for diagnosis of many parasites that is important clinically.Parasite cultivation is not so easy task, it requires level of expertise and knowledge of various kinds of microbiological cultures. However it helps us in understanding the disease causing organisms its diagnosis, management, control, treatment and drug discovery.

Cultivation of parasites is a complex procedure and involves numerous issues. Different kinds of nutrients such as blood, peptone, serum, haem, minerals , egg and carbohydrates are used in the culture media under favourable temperature, pH and light conditions.

Parasitic helminths are studied to be more difficult to cultivate than parasitic protozoan. MCAPS are of two types: Ectoparasites and Endoparasites. Parasitic helminths fall under the category of Endoparasites found inside the body and it includes flatworms and roundworms. Ectoparasites on the other hand are those that live outside their hosts skin and includes various types of insects such as fleas, lice, ticks, mites, tse-tse flies and bugs etc. These organisms are significant to microbiologists cause they are involved in wide variety of diseases. And cultivating them and studying them is comparatively easier than endoparasites. Ectoparasites such as: Pediculus humanus and Cimex lectularius under favourable conditions can be cultivated without much complexity.