VIABILITY TESTING AND CHARACTERIZATION OF GERMINATION OF FUNGAL SPORES BY AUTOMATIC IMAGE-ANALYSIS

Fungal spores are used in the laboratory for culture maintenance and a t laboratory and other scales as inocula for fermentations. The spore swelling and germination processes constitute a major part of the lag phase, and the subsequent culture morphology and productivity can be g reatly influenced by the initial concentration and condition of the sp ores. An image analysis method has been developed for assessing the vi ability and the germination characteristics of fungal spores in submer ged cultures. Structural variations during germination, i.e., swelling , germ tube formation, and germ tube elongation, are measured in terms of distributions of spore volumes and of germ tube lengths and volume s. These measurements are fully automatic and give a very rapid assess ment of spore viability. This image analysis method might be used as a tool in culture maintenance and for determining the quality of inocul a for fungal fermentations.