I want to observe growth of fungal strains on different agar plates (different media). Is there a dye I can add to the media in order to stain very thin and/or transparent hyphae?
So the used dye shouldn't influence neither growth nor viability of the strains. Further it would be ideal, if the dye was "universal", as I don't know the taxonomy of some of the strains.
Thank you for your answers in advance!
I seem to recall that methylene blue is a vital stain, so you could try putting some of that in the medium. No idea if it will work!
Michael Richardson thank you very much! I will try it and then tell you how it worked for my purposes.
It would be difficult to develop a "universal" fungal stain for addition to media as fungal cell walls are variable and most fungal stains bind with cellular components, inhibiting growth.
Also, most fungal stains work best on dead fungal cells (fixed and cleared).
Common mycological stains include colorimetric ones: cotton or aniline blue, brilliant cresyl or toluidine blue, Congo red, phloxine B, and chlorazole black; and fluorometric ones (bind beta glucans and chitin): calcofluor, blankphor, and fluorophore (fluorescein, TRITC, etc.) labeled wheat germ agglutinin.
Alternatively to visualize macroscopic fungal growth on plates you could approach it with a "negative" stain that is decolorized/cleared by fungal growth. These vary of course based on the basal media and fungal species (ligninolytic fungi and acidifying fungi are classic decolorizers). Examples would include rose bengal, bromophenol blue, resazurin, remazol brilliant blue, congo red, crystal violet, etc.
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