Mycotoxin Testing Methods

Search for actual on-line methods of testing for mycotoxins, and you'll mostly find private labs that are looking for business. However, Aspergillus.org is kind enough to post a PDF of the 2006 article A review of rapid methods for the analysis of mycotoxins, first appearing in Mycopatholigia.

Another paper, Standardization of mycotoxin sampling procedures: an urgent necessity from the journal Food Control (2003) is courtesy of North Carolina State University.

An apparently unpublished paper from South Dakota State is available called Sampling and testing for aflatoxin in corn.

The lab Envirologix provides a few tips in Mycotoxin Testing.

Understanding Mycotoxin Testing and Interpretation is from EHS Today.

And finally, even though you can only access abstracts, this USDA research page lists many publications having to do with mycotoxins and their analysis.

A Few Tips for Mycological Analysis of Food

The International Commission of Food Mycology has a brief methods section at their website. They are not very detailed, but the organization provides some tips on testing food samples for fungi. The methods mentioned include direct observation, direct plating and dilution plating. A couple of media formulations are also offered.

Preserving Fungal Specimens

The impetus for this post is the news that Kew Gardens will soon possess the world's largest collection of fungi. Now it stands to reason that a collection of fungi must be preserved and maintained. First the specimens must be prepared.

Preserving Fungal Fruit Bodies

Collecting and Preserving Fungi (PDF Manual)

How to Collect, Record and Preserve Fungi Specimens

Collecting and Preserving Fungi (PDF) (an old classic)

A Simple Way to Preserve Fungal Cultures

Preserving cultures of wood-decaying Basidiomycotina using sterile distilled water in cryovials (PDF)

Technique for Long-Term Preservation of Phytopathogenic Fungi
in Liquid Nitrogen (PDF)

Preservation and Distribution of Fungal Cultures (PDF)

Isolation of Dung Fungi

This post is inspired by a recent article about scientists using an analysis of ancient dung fungi to study the environment during the time of the mammoths and their extinction. Dung fungi are relatively easy to observe, and even to isolate, so long as you don't have major qualms about working with dung.

The following references for isolation of dung fungi are either procedures or papers with clearly written Materials and Methods sections.

Isolation of Coprophilous Fungi (Word doc)

Isolation and Identification of Coprophillous Fungi

Diversity of Microfungi from animal excrement at Ko Saaesarn and Mu Ko Angthong National Park (PDF)

Fungal Protocols at Journal of Visualized Experiments

In an interesting new venture, some PhDs founded the Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE). JoVE hails itself as "online research journal employing visualization to increase reproducibility and transparency in biological sciences."

Looks pretty good. Anyone can get a free one-day subscription and an individual annual is $99.

A search of the website reveals two video series devoted to techniques applicable to fungal research.

Assay for Adhesion and Agar Invasion in S. cerevisiae

Gibberella zeae Ascospore Production and Collection for Microarray Experiments

Mycotoxicology

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations is interested in fungi from both a human health and welfare perspective as well as an economic one. FAO has a couple of publication of interest to anyone interested in food safety and mycotoxins.

First there is a PDF manual entitled Handbook of Mycological Methods, provided by the FAO project on mycotoxins in coffee.

There is also a web-based edition of publication (ISSN 0254-4725) FAO FOOD AND NUTRITION PAPER 73—Manual on the application of the HACCP System in Mycotoxin prevention and control. This publication discusses Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) with respect to mycotoxins in food supply systems.

Antifungal Susceptibility Testing

Antifungal susceptibility testing is a process used to determine the effectiveness of drugs and other compounds against live cultures of fungi. Such tests are used to evaluate antifungal drugs so that effective treatments can be prescribed. Such tests are also used in laboratory demonstrations and to compare the effectiveness of new compounds against established standards.

Mycology Online from the University of Adelaide in Australia offers three professional quality articles on antifungal susceptibility testing:

CLSI and Sensititre YeastOne Methods
Neo-Sensitab and Etest Methods
Antifungal Susceptibility Profiles

Some others of interest are:

Etest for Antifungal Susceptibility Testing (PDF)

Antifungal Susceptibility Testing: Practical Aspects and Current Challenges

Yeast infections - From specimen collection to antifungal susceptibility testing (PDF)

Reference Method for Broth Dilution Antifungal Susceptibility Testing of Yeasts (PDF)

How to Make a Spore Print

A number of on-line resources exist, for learning spore print techniques. Here are some that work:

Making Spore Prints

How to Make a Spore Print

How to Make a Spore Print (Video)

Tissue Culturing a Wild Mushroom

A recent blog posting at the Cornell Mushroom Blog is exactly the kind of thing MycoTechnica is looking for. The post, Taming the Wild Fungus, provides directions for obtain a pure culture from tissue in Hypholoma sublateritium. According to site editor Kathie Hodge, "This post was written by a student (now a recent grad) who developed his talent with mushrooms by taking classes and participating in just about every mushroomy possibility Cornell has to offer."

Fungal Protocols at Molecular Station

Some Fungal protocols are posted at Molecular Station. Molecular Station seems to be an aggregator of sorts, and all of the things posted under "Fungal Protocols" are certainly not protocols in the standard sense of the term.

So what is a protocol. For the purposes of MycoTechnica, a protocol is a procedure and method written in such as way so that it can be followed and carried out by a practitioner. It does not include a paper that is just "helpful advice" or "suggestions" for how to do or improve something (not even another protocol!).

The "protocols" at Molecular Station are divided betwen three categories—Aspergillus, Neurospora, and Fungi Genetics. There are 117 listed, but how many of them are actual protocols is unclear.

MycoTechnica - The Myclogy Tools and Procedures Place

MycoTechnica is a repository for mycological techniques and procedures. At some point, if their is any laboratory method, technique or tool that is used in the study of fungi, you will find out about it here.