I have maintained the fungal cultures in agar slants. But certain fungal cultures get contaminated due to water droplets when stored at 4 degree Celsius and provided cultures need to be sub-culture every three-six months. Could fungal mycelium or spores can be stored in glycerol stocks as we do for bacterial storage?
Dear Ganga,
-If you have spore-producing fungal species, you can store it in 60% glycerol stock.
-But for non spore producers its very hard to store in glycerol stock because after some time it will not be revive from it. so maintain on agar slant sealed with cotton plug.
Dear Thakor,
Thanks for the information.
Any other methods are available for storing non-spore producers for long period?
Since the agar slant stored in 4 degree Celsius, had some bacterial contaminants..
Use lyophilization. Grow the fungus in a petri dish with PDA medium and a sheet of cellophane on top, thus you can remove mycelium and proceed to lyophilization.
Ana that's the good method. thanks for your comment. Will you please elaborate it.
We have successfully preserved Trichoderma sp. in sterile sand for one year.
In this method of preservation, 10 ml ampoules were filled with the sand (moisture content: 15-20%) upto their three/ fourth capacity. Ampoules containing sand were then autoclaved for 30 minutes (1210C, 15 psi). Then, 1 ml. of spore suspension of fungal culture was added to the sterile sand. After 15 days of growth, the ampoules were capped loosely and stored at 40C.
To revive the culture, spatter a few sand particles over the fresh agar medium.
a really simple and cheap way....you can use sterile distilled water and prepare a suspension of your fungi. (for spore producing colonies, use the spores) then seal your tubes with parafilm and store them at RT or 4 degree centigrade.
be careful, even small amounts of agar may leads to death of fungi. so carefully transfer large amount of your fungi to D.D.Water containing tubes.
we stored yeast and mycelial fungi with this method for more than 10 years in 30ml glass Bottles.
some fungi like mucorales , candida krusei and ... are susceptible.
@ Mahmoudi - How much volume of distilled water should be taken to suspend a spores or mycelia?
Could we store in small vials , which we used to store bacterial cultures in agar or glycerol stocks?
@Kaur - Did the sand preservation method applicable for all fungal cultures? Fungi like Fusarium could also be stored in a similar method?
Storage of fungal cultures in sterile sand works well for sporous cultures.
I am afraid to make any statement about filamentous cultures like Fusarium sp. But, you can give it a try. The method is quite simple.
Dear Ganga Viswanath
for long time storage, I think it is better to use bigger tubes.
we used 30 ml glass bottles containing 15-20 ml D.D.water.
I like to say you that we stored some clinical and environmental isolates of fusarium for 2 years, in this way. (2013 till now) and all are viable.
Can anyone tell me which cellophane should we use for routine fungus culture. I mean any company or brand
I have stored Aspergillus fumigatus spores in 40% (w/v) glycerol stocks and kept at -20 C.
Storing in double distilled water works. I stored sporulating T. asperellum in DD water in 2015 in a 2.0 ml vial wrapped in a paraflim and stored at 4C and could get bacterial free cultures using a spore solution on a PDA.
Actually, the storage of fungal species is quiet difficult. However, I have read a paper in which the authors were able to store economically-important fungal species using glycerol solutions (like bacteria) for more than 24 months. You can find this paper through the following link:
http://docsdrive.com/pdfs/academicjournals/ijbc/2015/79-85.pdf
Best of luck,
Ahmed
you can be used
1- one block of fungal on medium( PDA) in distal water.
1- spores suspension in silica gel.
both methods do not need an incubator .
yes you can saved for long time by using toothpick method.is a good choice.
using the silca gel mentioned by my professor and supervisor Dr.Nadeem Ramadan
Brown heartwood rot of lemons:
Two different wood rot fungi have been shown to cause decay and death of branches of citrus trees (Antrodia sinuosa & Coniophora eremophila, invade branch tissue through wounds resulting from partially broken limbs.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Biological Science
- Biota
- Eukaryota
- Fungi