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Fungal culture Media - Types, Ingredients, Use, Target organism

Last Modified: December 13, 2023

Fungal culture Media

Microbial culture media has undergone several changes since its inception with alternative nutrient sources and to cater to specific growth requirements (nutrition, pH, osmotic conditions, temperature) in the case of fastidious organisms.

Microorganisms require about 10 macro elements such as Carbon, Oxygen, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Sulphur, Phosphorous, Potassium, Calcium, Magnesium, and Iron where the first six are used for the synthesis of Carbohydrates, Lipids, Proteins, and Nucleic acids while the remaining four is used as cations. Microelements such as Mn, Zn, Co, Mo, Ni, and Cu are used for enzymes and co-factors. Culture media also contains organic compounds as growth factors.

For fungal culture, a high carbohydrate and nitrogen source is essential with a pH range from 5 to 6 and a temperature range from 15 to 37ºC.

Types of fungal culture media

Fungal media are of two types – natural and synthetic.

Natural media is composed of natural substrates which are easy to prepare but have the disadvantage of unknown composition. Eg: Corn meal agar, Potato dextrose agar, V-8 Juice agar, Dung Agar.

Synthetic media is composed of known ingredients at specific amounts that can be duplicated with precision each time. Eg: Czapek-Dox medium, glucose-asparagine, and Neurosporacrassa minimal medium.

General purpose media such as Sabouraud dextrose agar (SDA) is nutritionally poor with acidic pH (5.6). Selective media includes Inhibitory mold agar and Dermatophyte test media.

Fungal Culture media, Ingredients, Use

Fungal culture media is composed of the following ingredients.

Fungal Culture Media

Ingredients

Target Organism / Use

Sabouraud dextrose agar (SDA)

  • Glucose

  • Agar

  • Pancreatic digest of casein

    (Cycloheximide, Chloramphenicol, and Gentamycin may or may not be present)

  • Isolation, growth, and maintenance (sub-culture) of pathogenic fungi.

  • Not recommended for primary isolation of fastidious and dimorphic fungi.

Potato dextrose agar (PDA)

  • Dextrose

  • Potato infusion

  • Potato extract

  • Agar

    (Acid and antibiotics may or may not be present)

  • For slide culture preparation.

  • Promotes sporulation of dermatophytes.

  • Demonstrates pigment production by Trichophyton rubrum.

  • For Plate count methods

  • Microbial testing of dairy products, cosmetics, and foods.

Birdseed Agar / Niger Seed Agar / Staib Agar

  • Chloramphenicol

  • Monopotassium phosphate

  • Glucose

  • Creatinine

  • Guizotia abyssinica seeds

  • Agar

  • Isolation (selective, differential) of Cryptococcus neoformans

Rice starch Agar

  • Tween 80

  • Cream of rice

  • Agar

  • Growth and production of chlamydospore in Candida albicans.

Cornmeal (tween) Agar

  • Tween 80

  • Cornmeal

  • Agar

  • Identification of Candida albicans (morphology, chlamydospore production).

Potato Flake Agar

  • Dextrose

  • Potato flakes

  • Agar

  • Primary recovery of pathogenic, saprophytic, dimorphic fungi which are slow growing.

Brain-Heart Infusion (BHI) Agar

  • Brain-Heart infusion

  • Glucose

  • L-cysteine hydrochloride

  • Agar

  • Non-selective medium.

  • Culture of fastidious pathogenic fungi – saprophytic and dimorphic (Histoplasma capsulatum, Blastomyces dermatitidis)

Mycosel/mycobiotoc Agar

  • Dextrose

  • Cycloheximide

  • Papaic digest of soybean meal

  • Chloramphenicol

  • Agar

  • SDA with cycloheximide and chloramphenicol.

  • Highly selective medium used to isolate pathogenic fungi from specimens containing high levels of contamination (fungal, bacterial).

CHROMagar Candia medium

  • Peptone

  • Chloramphenicol

  • Glucose

  • Chromogenic ix

  • Agar

  • A type of chromogenic agar.

  • Chromogenic media which is both selective and differential used for Candida species.

Czapek-Dox Agar

  • KCl

  • MgSO4

  • NaNO3

  • K2HO4

  • FeSO4

  • Glucose

  • Agar

  • Semisenthetic medium with sodium nitrate as the sole source of nitrogen.

  • Identification of Aspergillus spp., Penicillium spp., and production of chlamydospore (by Candida albicans)

Inhibitory Mold Agar (IMA)

  • Tryptone

  • Beef extract

  • Starch

  • Chloramphenicol

  • Yeast extract

  • Saline buffer

  • Gentamicin

  • Enriched medium.

  • Primary recovery of dimorphic fungi but not saprophytes and dermatophytes.

Dermatophyte test medium (DTM)

  • Dextrose

  • Phenol Red

  • Agar

  • Soy peptone

  • Cycloheximide

  • Gentamicin sulfate

  • Chloramphenicol

  • Differential fungal culture medium to isolate and identify (usually dermatophytes)

Fungal Blood Culture Systems

  • Lysis Centrifugation System

  • SEPTI-CHEK system

    (Automated blood culture system)

  • Both aerobic and anaerobic bottles should be filled with blood samples.

  • Promotes growth of fungi such as Cryptococcus neoformans, Histoplasma capsulatum, and Penicillium marneffei.

  • Mostly performed in patients with trauma, malignancies, HIV, immunocompromised, receiving broad-spectrum antibiotics, or critical conditions.

Modified Leeming-Notman Agar

  • Bacteriological peptone (Oxoid)

  • Glucose

  • Yeast extract

  • desiccated Ox bile (Oxoid)

  • Glycerol

  • Glycerol monostearate

  • Tween 60

  • Olive oil

  • Agar

  • Deionized water

  • For isolation and culture of lipophilic fungi - Malassezia sp

Modified Dixon Agar

  • Malt extract (Oxoid L39)

  • Bacto Tryptone

  • Ox-bile desiccated (Oxoid L50)

  • Tween 40

  • Oleic acid

  • Glycerol

  • Bacto agar (BD)

  • Distilled water

  • For isolation and culture of lipophilic fungi - Malassezia sp

Christensen’s Urea Agar

  • Peptic Digest of Animal Tissue

  • Dextrose

  • Sodium Chloride

  • Disodium Phosphate

  • Monopotassium Phosphate

  • Phenol Red

  • Agar

  • Distilled water

  • Induces conidia formation in filamentous fungi.

Esculin Agar

  • Pancreatic Digest of Gelatin

  • Beef Extract

  • Ox-bile

  • Ferric Citrate

  • Esculin

  • Agar

  • Esculin-based medium for isolation and identification of Cryptococcus neoformans

  • For differentiation of some Malassezia spp.

Trichophyton Agar

(six types of media are present - Trichophyton Agar 1,2,3,4,6,7)

  • Vitamin Assay Casamino Acids (agar 1,2,3,4)

  • Dextrose (present in all types)

  • Monopotassium Phosphate (present in all types)

  • Magnesium Sulfate (present in all types)

  • Agar (present in all types)

  • Inositol (agar 2,3)

  • Thiamine HCL (agar 3,4)

  • Ammonium nitrate (agar 6,7)

  • Histidine HCL (agar 7)

  • Differential media used for presumptive identification of Trichophyton spp. on the basis of nutritional requirements.

  • Determine the nutritional requirements of Trichophyton spp.

* Cycloheximide is added to reduce contamination by environmental fungi. However, it also prohibits the growth of opportunistic fungi such as Aspergillus spp., Cryptococcus neoformans, and Mucor.

* Chloramphenicol prevention of bacterial contamination. It also inhibits the growth of Actinomycetes.

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