MICR 121 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Cryptococcus Neoformans, Gram Staining, Ergosterol
4 Feb 2018
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Micr120 lecture 3: mycology the world of fungi. Yeast: unicellular; can grow on agar plate (similar to bacterial colonies: mold: multicellular (e. g. grow on cheese) Ppl may refer to fungal infection as mold infection (even though both yeast and mold are fungi) Infecting eukaryotic host host cell (structure similar to human eukaryotic) Yeast colonies looks similar to bacterial colonies but they are not bacteria. Yeast: over 1500 different species in kingdom fungi, unlike bacteria, which have a fairly rudimentary cellular structure, yeast have much more sophisticated cellular machinery. They are unicellular eukaryotic organisms. (molds are multicellular) Cell membrane is made of ergosterol, similar to cholesterol (in human) and is a primary sterol. Contains a cell wall: no peptidoglycan; major structure is chitin; exploited for diagnosis typically; new drugs use the cell wall as a target (similar to bacteria but does not have peptidoglycan: antifungal therapy targets ergosterol.
