Dear Esabella,

We are working in the field of Medical and Veterinary Mycology since 1973. You prepare the wet mount preparation of the fungal culture in Lactophenol cotton blue stain or PHOL stain or Narayan stain to study the morphology. We have developed PHOL (Pal, Hasegawa, Ono, Lee) stain (1990) and Narayan stain (1998) to study the morphology of yeast, molds and algae.You can employ our stain for morphological studies of fungi.You can take the help of any Mycology book to see the detailed morphology to reach up to Genus level.This is most simple, easy, and cheap method to identify fungi up to genus level.We have published over 200 papers on fungi, which are implicated in various clinical disorders of humans and animals.

Stay safe and healthy.

With best wishes and good luck in your career.

Prof.Dr.Mahendra Pal

Founder Director of Narayan Consultancy on Veterinary Public Health and Microbiology, Anand ,India

Do you have a library of mycology books you can consult? It won't be easy, because to use a dichotomous key you need to understand a bunch of obscure terms. You also need to know what the crucial morphological characteristics are. If you can post a photomicrograph, "we" might be able to steer you in the right direction and perhaps recommend books.

Yes, it is possible, but very difficult. I had a PhD mycologist doing that in my lab, before PCR was invented. The only way for species identification was to grow it in the lab, on various media to help differentiate the genus, visual morphology of the colony helped with this, then microscopically, using the myriad of charts and books on microscopic morphology, she could usually identify the species. You have to realize that there are thousands upon thousands of mold species, and many more that have not been identified and published yet. After many years in the lab I felt fairly confident that I could tell you the species of a mold myself. In your favor is the fact that there are only about 200 mold species that we commonly saw, and those became rather routine. So, I would say that your question is possible, with a lot of practice, experience and knowledge; a good library of mycology, a lab to culture the mold, and a good microscope. (ps now you have the internet, and the whole world can review your sample, which takes the last part out of your hands, but you would still need a lab to culture and a good microscope. You already have one mycologist willing to help you in the previous answer. PCR is just confirmation of your preliminary workup, and I believe the database is currently limited, and expensive.) November 30, 2020. Gary Ordog, MD Thank you.

But to identify to genus is not that bad: I do recommend posting a photo.

Nina Shishkoff Gary Joseph Ordog Thank you for answering my question. Actually, we are just making a topic proposal and I don't think I might be able to provide a photo within a year or two and I am searching for an efficient way to identifying fungi within a limited amount of time.

If known species are there or persion already familiar with fungi then morphological identification is possible. Now a day identication using molecular kits is authentic.

Cheap and best, morphological methods, because you want to identify upto genus level only.

To your question - no. You do require prior skills in identfiyng microrganisms.

There are resources and special books on diagnosing fungi from kingdom to genus.

1. Direct examination:

After collect the samples handling with sample by put it on clean slid and put cover slid and examine under microscope (40X objective lens). For detection the fungi from dry samples can be use KOH 10-20% preparation serve to clear away debris and keratinize tissues, by heating KOH for 5-10 minutes, after that put the cover slid and examine under microscope (40X objective lens) with reduce illumination to allow fungal structures to be seen clearly.

2. In Direct examination (Culture examination):

Culturing on mycological media by taken the sample and place it on the middle area of the plate, after that put the plates in the incubator at 22-25˚C for mold or at 30-37˚C for yeast.

Fungi are microscopic organisms. Fungi are classified on morphology. To know morphology one need an hand lens and a microscope. After knowing morphology you need books. You have to learn skills in a mycology lab to study fungi.

If you have knowledge of fungi, the principles of its classification, how to grow it, and how to prepare and examine the samples, some taxonomic books can be followed, such as 1-illustrated genera of fungi 2- Atals of fungi or others.

Best regard

Dear, Isabella Jessy Layan Cortes ,,

Firstly, you must culture the sample on suitable medium such as PDA, PCA, MEA, Czapek Dox Agar, Sabouraud Dextrose Agar, etc. Then the plates must incubated in incubator under 25 C for 3-5 days. The colony must morphologically noticed to record the colony features. Then the microscopically testing must be doing by preparing slides and using microscope to notice the main features of the fungus in order to identify it.

Dear Yehya_Salih, sir thanks and you are right, first go for morphology study i.e. growth in plate and will be use microscope, then follow book and literature survey as you can identify. At last u can use molecular characterization.

Dear Esabella,

We are working in the field of Medical and Veterinary Mycology since 1973. You prepare the wet mount preparation of the fungal culture in Lactophenol cotton blue stain or PHOL stain or Narayan stain to study the morphology. We have developed PHOL (Pal, Hasegawa, Ono, Lee) stain (1990) and Narayan stain (1998) to study the morphology of yeast, molds and algae.You can employ our stain for morphological studies of fungi.You can take the help of any Mycology book to see the detailed morphology to reach up to Genus level.This is most simple, easy, and cheap method to identify fungi up to genus level.We have published over 200 papers on fungi, which are implicated in various clinical disorders of humans and animals.

Stay safe and healthy.

With best wishes and good luck in your career.

Prof.Dr.Mahendra Pal

Founder Director of Narayan Consultancy on Veterinary Public Health and Microbiology, Anand ,India