Q.Explain the asexual reproduction in Rhizopus.

Rhizopus (Class Zygomycetes, Order Mucorales, Family Mucoraceae), the common bread mould, is a saprophyte on bread, jelly, leather and decaying produce, with a profusely branched, coenocytic mycelium built of stolons (aerial hyphae), rhizoids (which anchor the fungus and absorb nutrients) and sporangiophores borne exactly opposite the rhizoids. In asexual reproduction, each sporangiophore bears a single sporangium with a sterile central columella; spores form around the columella and disperse when the sporangial wall breaks, germinating into new mycelium. In sexual reproduction, mycelia of opposite ('+' and '-') strain are needed (Rhizopus is mostly heterothallic, though Rhizopus sexualis is homothallic): each strain puts out a zygophore, wh …