Foot cell

This article describes the foot cell in fungi, for the foot cells of the kidney corpuscles see podocyte .

Schematic representation of an Aspergillus conidium carrier

A foot cell is a hyphae cell in the genera Aspergillus and Sterigmatocystis on which a conidiophore grows.

The first sign of conidiogenesis is the swelling of cells within the mycelium , which are then called the conidogenic locus. These cells then form a septum (a strong thickening of the cell wall ). From each of these so-called foot cells, a single conidiophore grows as a branch perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the cell and usually approximately in its center. As the conidium carrier continues to grow, the foot cell bends and twists increasingly. Their connection to the vegetative hyphae becomes more and more inconspicuous. Foot cells can develop both within the substrate and on aerial hyphae.

literature

• Kenneth B. Raper, Dorothy I. Fennel: The Genus Aspergillus . Williams & Wilkins, Baltimore 1965, pp. 20th f . (English).