VIABILITY ASSESSMENT OF PURE CULTURES OF MUCORALES PRESERVED AT 4°C

Naureen Akhtar, Rahila Hafeez, Amna Ali

Abstract


Mucorales (Zygomycetes) are among the most ancient groups of fungi. Although they are fast growing in culture but preservation of these cultures is rather sensitive as compared to other filamentous fungi. First Fungal Culture Bank of Pakistan maintained a large number of isolates of this group. Recently viability of members of mucorales was assessed that were isolated and purified from a variety of substrates between the years 2003-2006. Agar slants of pure cultures of these strains were preserved at 4 °C. These include seven species each of the genus Absidia and Mucor, four species of Rhizopus, two of Cunninghamella and one species belonging to genus Phycomyces. Results indicated that most of the strains lost their viability during storage period even none of the species from genus Absidia and Phycomyces survived. Therefore maintaining cultures of mucorales by this method is not recommended for their long term preservation. For long term preservation of fungal cultures, cryopreservation, lyophilization or silica gel preservation could be the alternate methods.


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Pakistan Journal of Phytopathology
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