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Old 12-12-2010, 01:07 AM
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Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: dx'd4/01@63 Louisiana
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RLSmi RLSmi is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: dx'd4/01@63 Louisiana
Posts: 562
15 yr Member
Default Aspergilus niger

The fungus/mold Aspergilus niger is dark brown or black. The pigment is probably some form of melanin, the production of which uses L-DOPA made from L-Tyrosine by the enzyme tyrosinase. I don't know that I have ever seen a culture of A. oryzae, so don't know if it also makes a melanin-like pigement.

We used to live in a house that had a big pecan tree beside the driveway where I parked the car. At a certain time of summer, the tree had a heavy infestation of aphids which secreted a sugar-rich liquid "honeydew" that fell onto anything beneath the tree. My light tan car would grow nice little black colonies of A. niger in the aphid juice unless I washed it weekly. If I postponed washing it for as long as two weeks, it would become almost completely covered by the black mold, especially on summers when the aphids were especially numerous.

Robert
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paula_w (12-12-2010)