S. Brul et al., FLUORESCENT-PROBES FOR WALL POROSITY AND MEMBRANE INTEGRITY IN FILAMENTOUS FUNGI, Journal of microbiological methods, 28(3), 1997, pp. 169-178
To assess the viability of moulds, quick detection methods using fluor
escent probes were evaluated. A major hurdle in the use of intracellul
ar probes can be the wall of filamentous fungi. We studied the permeab
ility of the wall of germinating conidiospores with anionic ellipsoid
FITC-dextran molecules and confocal scanning laser microscopy. In cont
rast to S. cerevisiae, filamentous fungi internalized FITC-dextran mol
ecules up to 150 kDa (Stokes radius of 8-9 nm). We concluded that the
wall of germinating conidia forms no size exclusion barrier for fluore
scent viability probes. To assess the viability of a suspension of ger
minating conidiospores, PI, CDFDA, and FUN1 were shown to be suitable.
It was not possible to homogeneously stain fresh conidiospores with f
luorescent viability probes. Nonetheless, fluorescence activated cell
sorting was possible and allowed the sorting of different sub-populati
ons. Whilst the presence of esterase activity (CDFDA staining) did not
correlate with outgrowth potential, the uptake of PI did correlate wi
th no outgrowth. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.