Indeed, recent studies have shown that fungal spores and other biological particles account for a large proportion aerosol particle mass from both rural and urban areas 13. Despite the advances in drug discovery and therapy, fungal infections are ever increasing and remain a significant problem, especially in immunosuppressed hosts (transplant recipients, cancer and AIDS patients), as spores of opportunistic human fungal pathogens like Candida spp and Cryptococcus spp are prevalent everywhere in our environment 10, 11, 12. Since most of the wall components are unique to fungi but absent in mammalian cells, it serves as one of the attractive targets for anti-fungal drug development 8, 9. In fact, yeast spores are known to enable them to survive passage through the digestive tract of Drosophila and are shown to be resistant to laboratory treatments such as exposure to ether vapor, temperature & pH shock and very high salt concentrations 5, 6, 7.įrom a pathological perspective, cell wall acts as the first line of defense against the host in the event of fungal infection. Spore walls, which are usually made up of complex three-dimensional network of polysaccharides such as glucan, mannan, chitin, chitosan and glycoproteins, confer mechanical strength and resistance to environmental stress. Spore containing sac is called an ascus while the overall structure is termed an ascospore. pombe, haploid spores are formed in a set of four, called a tetrad. These are first enveloped within double structured prospore membrane in the cytoplasm of the mother cell followed by spore wall formation, which is rather extensive when compared with their vegetative counterparts 1, 2, 3, 4. Sporulation is a dynamic process that involves segregation of chromosomes in two consecutive meiotic divisions, a form of cell division that is radically different from the vegetative cells, resulting in the production of four haploid nuclei. However, nutrient deprivation, especially that of nitrogen, leads to a series of complex biochemical, genetic and morphological changes that triggers cells to exit the mitotic cycle and enter sexual reproductive cycle where a diploid is formed by mating with the opposite strain, followed by sporogenesis. pombe) is a rod shaped, single-celled haploid organism that generally reproduces asexually by mitosis. Spores are quiescent forms of microbial life that preserve the genetic material when conditions are lethal for normal vegetative life cycle.

Spore microscope