Re: What determines the color of mold?

> What determines the color of mold?

Good question! The part of most mold that is usually responsible for it's color are the conidia (or spores) which are reproductive structures. A single mold spore can grow into an entire colony, make more spores, and then those spores can spread to make more colonies.

The color of some molds found in food give the food it's charateristic color. For example, Bleu cheese get's it blue color from a mold called Penicillum... which is also the same genus which makes the antibiotic penicillin.

Mold spores have the particular color they do because of their genes. Before mold scientists (called mycologists) knew about DNA, they classified molds with different colors as different species. We now know that two molds can be a different color, but really be the same kind of mold.