Yeasts, Molds And Aspergilli

This group gathers Fungi subcategory members that grow as single-celled yeasts or as filamentous molds rather than producing a visible mushroom-like fruiting body, a lifestyle spanning brewing and baking yeasts, common household and food-spoilage molds, and economically important soil fungi. It spans the genus Aspergillus, common molds found in soil and stored food that are put to industrial use in fermentation and enzyme production even as certain species cause serious disease in people with weakened immune systems, and Trichoderma, a genus of soil-dwelling molds valued as a biological control agent for its ability to attack and suppress other, genuinely harmful plant-pathogenic fungi rather than causing disease itself. Nearly every member here reproduces primarily through microscopic spores dispersed on air currents rather than through a large, conspicuous fruiting body, which is precisely what makes this ecologically vast portion of the fungal kingdom far less visible to a casual observer than the mushrooms most people picture when they hear the word fungus.