The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is a federal agency that conducts and supports health promotion, prevention and preparedness activities in the United States with the goal of improving overall public health.
4. Dimorphic fungi may exhibit two different growth forms. Outside the body they grow as a mold, producing hyphae and asexual reproductive spores, but in the body they grow in a yeast-like form. 5. The appearance of a mold and the type of spores it produces is useful in its identification.. Dimorphic fungi. Dimorphic fungi may exhibit two different growth forms. Outside the body they grow as a mold, producing hyphae and asexual reproductive spores, but in the body they grow in a non-mycelial yeast form.
Some fungi grow as single-celled yeasts which reproduce by budding, and some dimorphic fungi can switch between a yeast phase and a hyphal phase in response to environmental conditions. The fungal cell wall contains glucans also found in plants, but also chitin not found in the Plant kingdom, but in some animals. In contrast to plants, fungal cell walls do not contain cellulose. Fungal hyphae may have several nuclei within each hyphal compartment, and many budding yeasts are diploid.