The Spitzenkörper (German for 'pointed body', SPK) is a structure found in fungal hyphae that is the organizing center for hyphal growth and morphogenesis.
It consists of many small vesicles and is present in growing hyphal tips, during spore germination, and where branch formation occurs.
In the higher fungi (Ascomycota and Basidiomycota), secretory and endocytic vesicles are arranged into a dense, spherical aggregation called the Spitzenkörper or ‘apical body’.
Hyphae of the Oomycota and some lower Eumycota (notably the Zygomycota) do not contain a recognizable Spitzenkörper, and the vesicles are instead distributed more loosely often in a crescent-shaped arrangement beneath the apical plasma membrane.
[4][5][6][7][8] Vargas et al 1993 however were the first to find a Spitzenkörper in another clade, specifically the Allomyces (Blastocladiomycota),[5][9][6][4][7][8] then subsequently Basidiobolus ranarum – which has been placed in several different phyla – was also found to have an SPK.