Improved detection and identification of aquatic fungi and chitin in aquatic environments

Chitin is a polymer of major importance in aquatic environments. We report on a new chitin-staining method for environmental samples. Major advantages of this method are (i) its high specificity and (ii) its suitability for combination with general stains, such as 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI), or taxa-specific methods, such as fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). This method lets aquatic mycologists explore basal fungal lineages directly in situ, identify their hosts, occurrence and evolutionary traits.