Sporogenesis video

Chains of Aspergillus fumigatus conidia (the type of spores that cause disease) are made on conidiophores. These tree-like structures lift dormant spores up above the fungal colony where the wind can whisk them away.  Each Aspergillus fumigatus spore is about 2.5 micrometers wide, that’s 1/1000th of an inch. You could fit about 1,000 spores in the space that is the period at the end of this sentence takes up. This small size allows A. fumigatus spores to travel deep into mammalian lungs. This artist’s rendition of millions of spores released by a draft of wind makes it pretty obvious how most of us could breathe more than 100 of these tiny spores every day.