Relationship between spore germination kinetics and lag time during growth of Mucor racemosus.
OBJECTIVE
Spore germination requires microscopic observation whereas fungal growth results in a macroscopic examination. This paper aims at establishing a relationship between the percentage of germinated spores and parameters easily available from visible development.


RESULTS
About 225 spores of Mucor racemosus were inoculated on PDA medium and incubated at 15 degrees and 25 degrees C. Germination kinetics were modelled by a logistic function. Fungal development provided two parameters, a growth rate, micro, and a lag period, lambda, defined as the slope of the straight line of the graph radius (mm) vs time (h) and the intercept of this line with the X-axis, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
It was found that the lag period coincided with the completion of the germination process, although the number of spores inoculated should be controlled carefully.


CONCLUSIONS
Providing that this result can be generalized, this procedure would constitute a significant breakthrough for predicting food spoilage by moulds.
Dantigny
P
P
Laboratoire de Microbiologie, UMR INRA 1082, ENS.BANA, Dijon, France. phdant@u-bourgogne.fr
Soares Mansur
C
C
Sautour
M
M
Tchobanov
I
I
Bensoussan
M
M
D003470:Culture Media; D009089:Mucor / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism; D025282:Mycelium / Q000254:growth & development; D013172:Spores, Fungal / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism; D013696:Temperature; D013997:Time Factors
D003470:Culture Media