title: A novel method for identifying hydrophobicity on fungal surfaces.
abstract: Fungal surface hydrophobicity has many ecological functions and water contact angles measurement is a direct and simple approach for its characterization. The objective of this study was to evaluate if in-vitro growth conditions coupled with versatile image analysis allows for more accurate fungal contact angle measurements. Fungal cultures were grown on agar slide media and contact angles were measured utilizing a modified microscope and digital camera setup. Advanced imaging software was adopted for contact angle determination. Contact angles were observed in hydrophobic, hydrophilic and a newly created chronoamphiphilic class containing fungi taxa with changing surface hydrophobicity. Previous methods are unable to detect slight changes in hydrophobicity, which provide vital information of hydrophobicity expression patterns. Our method allows for easy and efficient characterization of hydrophobicity, minimizing disturbance to cultures and quantifying subtle variation in hydrophobicity.
authors: College of Agriculture and Bioresources, Department of Soil Science, University of Saskatchewan, 51 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A8, Canada.
authors: Henry Wai
authors: HW
authors: Chau
authors: Bing Cheng
authors: BC
authors: Si
authors: Yit Kheng
authors: YK
authors: Goh
authors: Vladimir
authors: V
authors: Vujanovic
mesh_terms: D005658:Fungi / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000166:cytology; D057927:Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions; D008853:Microscopy / Q000379:methods*; D013499:Surface Properties