Abstract

Maintenance of microorganisms in mycology is of fundamental importance for retrospective and prospective studies that focus on their biology, etiology and epidemiology. The aim of this study was to evaluate the viability, contamination and morphological changes of endophytic fungi maintained under different preservation methods. We evaluated five preservation methods; constant sub-culturing, preservation under mineral oil, under distilled water, preservation at -20°C and storage at -70°C. Every 50 days, we evaluated the viability, purity and macro-micro morphology of the cultures. The main results are as follows:  constant sub-culturing and preservation under distilled water have allowed the viability of all strains during the study period.  Preservation in mineral oil resulted in the contamination of the strain Aspergillus F45 and micro-morphological modification of the Fusarium LU5 culture after 100 days of preservation. Preservation at -70°C caused macro-morphological changes in Fusarium LU6 after 100 days. Under the experimental conditions and the limited period of study (150 days) it was demonstrated that conservation under distilled water was the most appropriate form of preservation of endophytic microorganisms.

Key words: Endophytes, preservation methods, morphological characteristics.