Freeze-drying fungi using a shelf freeze-drier

Area of Science:

• Mycology
• Microbiology
• Biotechnology

Background:

• Filamentous fungi are crucial in various ecosystems and biotechnological applications.
• Long-term preservation of fungal strains is essential for research, industry, and biodiversity conservation.
• Traditional preservation methods can lead to genetic drift or loss of viability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe a reliable method for the long-term preservation of filamentous fungi.
• To highlight the effectiveness of lyophilization using skimmed milk as a lyoprotectant.
• To report the successful application of this method in a large-scale culture collection.

Main Methods:

• Utilized standard shelf freeze-drying equipment.
• Employed skimmed milk as a suspending solution and lyoprotectant for fungal strains.
• Applied the method to a large collection of filamentous fungi.

Main Results:

• Lyophilization proved to be a successful method for long-term fungal preservation.
• The use of skimmed milk facilitated the process and protected the fungal strains.
• The Centraal bureau voor Schimmelcultures (CBS) collection successfully lyophilized the majority of its 50,000 fungal strains.

Conclusions:

• Lyophilization with skimmed milk is an effective and scalable method for preserving filamentous fungi.
• This technique ensures the long-term viability and genetic stability of fungal cultures.
• The described method is suitable for large culture collections like the CBS.