Fiddling with Finicky Fungi: Fastidious Culture Efforts Offer Fruitful Findings to Foster Furthering Future Attempts
Additional Funding Sources
This project is supported by the National Science Foundation Grant ZyGoLife.
Abstract
Despite advances in techniques and tools available to work on microorganisms in a modern laboratory, these efforts can benefit immensely from axenic cultures. Trichomycetes are obligate arthropod gut dwelling organisms that present a challenging platform at the culture bench, but nonetheless have been established as isolates for species of certain genera and some maintained since the mid-1960’s. Yet, other genera remain challenging, at least with traditional approaches. Our “Team Tricho” laboratory has been manipulating “older” methods with new and understudied fungi, including Capniomyces sasquatchoides an endosymbiont found in winter stonefly larvae. Nymphs were collected in Boise Idaho from Dry Creek from early December 2017 to late March 2018. Culture attempts were made by using traditional culture methods that were modified to manipulate certain variables such as temperature, media type, overlay type, and antibiotic concentration. In the lab they were dissected and culture attempts were made using new methods developed in a somewhat trial and error manner. These efforts presented preliminary evidence of a successful culture attempt. However, many more variables have yet to be manipulated and it’s possible more “unculturable” fungi will become available. Such cultures are extremely valuable to ongoing collaborative efforts with @ZyGoLife and deposit in culture collections.
Fiddling with Finicky Fungi: Fastidious Culture Efforts Offer Fruitful Findings to Foster Furthering Future Attempts
Despite advances in techniques and tools available to work on microorganisms in a modern laboratory, these efforts can benefit immensely from axenic cultures. Trichomycetes are obligate arthropod gut dwelling organisms that present a challenging platform at the culture bench, but nonetheless have been established as isolates for species of certain genera and some maintained since the mid-1960’s. Yet, other genera remain challenging, at least with traditional approaches. Our “Team Tricho” laboratory has been manipulating “older” methods with new and understudied fungi, including Capniomyces sasquatchoides an endosymbiont found in winter stonefly larvae. Nymphs were collected in Boise Idaho from Dry Creek from early December 2017 to late March 2018. Culture attempts were made by using traditional culture methods that were modified to manipulate certain variables such as temperature, media type, overlay type, and antibiotic concentration. In the lab they were dissected and culture attempts were made using new methods developed in a somewhat trial and error manner. These efforts presented preliminary evidence of a successful culture attempt. However, many more variables have yet to be manipulated and it’s possible more “unculturable” fungi will become available. Such cultures are extremely valuable to ongoing collaborative efforts with @ZyGoLife and deposit in culture collections.
Comments
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