A Rapid Method for Measuring In Vitro Growth in Entomopathogenic Fungi

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Documents

  • Fulltext

    Final published version, 2.15 MB, PDF document

Quantifying the growth of entomopathogenic fungi is crucial for understanding their virulence and pathogenic potential. Traditional methods for determining growth, such as biomass determination or colony growth area, are time-consuming and quantitatively and spatially limited in scope. In this study, we introduce a high-throughput method for rapidly measuring fungal growth using spectrophotometry in small-volume, liquid media cultures in 96-well microplates. Optical density (OD) changes were directly correlated with dry weight of samples for six isolates from three species of the genus Metarhizium to validate spectrophotometric growth measurements, and investigate species- and isolate-specific effects. We quantified fungal biomass from the microcultures by extracting, drying, and weighing mycelial mats. From the relationship established between OD and biomass, we generated standard curves for predicting biomass based on the OD values. The OD measurements clearly distinguished growth patterns among six isolates from three Metarhizium species. The logistic growth phase, as captured by the OD measurements, could be accurately assessed within a span of 80 h. Using isolates of M. acridum, M. brunneum, and M. guizhouense, this technique was demonstrated to be an effective, reproducible, and simple method for rapidly measuring filamentous fungal growth with high precision. This technique offers a valuable tool for studying the growth dynamics of entomopathogenic fungi and investigating the factors that influence their growth.

Original languageEnglish
Article number703
JournalInsects
Volume14
Issue number8
Number of pages14
ISSN2075-4450
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 by the authors.

    Research areas

  • bioassay technique, biomass quantification, filamentous fungi, fungal growth, Metarhizium, microplate reader, microspectrophotometry, spectrophotometry

ID: 366505828