An Improved Slide Culture Technique for the Microscopic Identification of Fungal Species

Several phyto pathogenic fungi have been discovered by numerous researchers who continue to be saddled with the problem of proper identification of these fungal agents. The conventional method requires plating out the diseased tissues of such plant materials onto culture media and observing their gross morphological features on agar plates. As soon as their colonial characteristics have been studied, the microscopic examination of fungal reproductive structures spores and mycelia must be done as a confirmative method of identification which must be followed by Molecular identification in order to ensure complete identification. This step often disturbs the fragile spore hypha arrangements, thus, leading difficulties in interpretation of morphological results owing to the teasing effect in the preparation of wet mounts. The slide culture method of identification developed by Riddel in 1950 which uses an agar block of medium transferred to a glass slide and put in a moist petri dish have since been used with various modifications that have not really taken care of the slight disturbance of the mycelial arrangement of the study fungi that occurs during removal and replacement of coverslips during lactophenol cotton blue stain. We have developed a rapid slide culture method that can diminsh this problem to the barest minimum. Agu, Kingsley Chukwuebuka | Chidozie, Chiamaka Perpetua "An Improved Slide Culture Technique for the Microscopic Identification of Fungal Species" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-6 | Issue-1 , December 2021, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd45058.pdf Paper URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/biological-science/microbiology/45058/an-improved-slide-culture-technique-for-the-microscopic-identification-of-fungal-species/agu-kingsley-chukwuebuka