Explain the Procedure for Morphological Study of Fungi?
Now carry out the exercise, following the steps enumerated herewith:
1. Prepare a humid chamber by placing two-three pieces of filter paper in a Petri plate and moisten with distilled water.
2. Sterilize the plate by autoclaving.
3. Put a Sterilized U shaped glass tube in a Petri plate over the moistened filter paper with a help of sterile forcep.
4. Put a clean, sterilized slide over U tube as shown in the Figure in the margin.
5. Cut a block of Czapek dox agar (10*10 mm) from medium plate with a flamed blade and inoculate its top and bottom surfaces with the given fungal culture.
6. Gently keep the agar block on the slide in plate with one of inoculated surface in contact with the slide surface.
7. Place gently a flamed cover slip on the upper inoculated surface of the block.
8. Incubate the whole plate at 28 ± 2° C.
9. Observe the slide for the growth of the fungus and examine intermittently under microscope for conidial formation and arrangement.
10. Prepare semi-permanent mounts from cover slip and slide for observing conidiation/ sporulation.
11. For cover slip semi-permanent mount, remove the cover slip carefully from the upper surface of the agar block with the help of flame sterilized forceps. Put a drop of 95% ethanol on fungus side of the cover-slip. After draining excess of alcohol, put the fungus side of cover-slip on a drop of lactophenol cotton blue on a slide. Examine under the microscope.
12. In a similar manner slide semi-permanent mount is made. For the same, remove the agar block from the slide gently and put the block in the disinfectant solution. Put 95% alcohol on the fungus growth on the slide. Drain off the excess alcohol and stain with lactophenol cotton blue. After putting a coverslip observe under the microscope.