GR1008010B - Dish for differential synchronous cultures - Google Patents

Abstract

Plastic dishes having a diameter of 9 cm, radially divided in three sectors, each of 120 degrees, are filled with three different commercially available nutrient substrates for mycological use: MEA, CzA and Sabouraud Glycose Agar or Sabouraud Dextrose Agar or Sabouraud Emmon's, with or without chloramphenicol. These nutrient substrates may be replaced by others, depending on the expected fungi populations, however one of these must be a general common one for mycological use, a second one must induce intense growth and the third one should be oligotrophic, selective or differentiating. The dish, as fabricated, has on one partition wall a visible color marking or a metal insert for fixed orientation of the dish during filling clockwise with the three materials, in the said order or in any other fixed order. Each dish is inoculated at the three materials by spiking of the same fungus sample strain and incubated. When analysing the dish, the growth of the strain on the three nutrients under almost identical growth conditions (temperature, humidity, inoculation time) is compared. The label (color or metal) on a partition allows the automatization of the incubation procedure, while repeated analyses over time of the same dish allow plotting of growth curves instead of simple, momentary descriptions. Analysis of the dishes, either by an image processing software or by naked eye, and filling of a description report may be facilitated by scanning the dish with a color scanner.