A couple of ideas come to mind.

1) You could use a Dextran-Fluorochrome marker and image the boundary by
negative staining (The agar would be, say, green and the fungus would be
non-fluorescent as black)

2) Use a dye that would have a group that is cleaved making it fluorescent
(I clearly know nothing about fungus except that I like some types on
salad) such as Flou-3-AM but I don't know if the fungus has the
appropriate enzymes or not.

________________________________________________________________________________


Paul Goodwin
Image Analysis Lab
FHCRC, Seattle, WA

On Wed, 19 Feb 1997, Colin Macqueen wrote:

> Dear Folks,
>         A research group here wants to label fungal aerial hyphae in vivo
> to measure the thickness of the growth. The fungi's integrity whilst
> growing on the agar plate cannot be compromised. Does anyone know of
> fluorescent dyes which can be added to the medium and become incorporated
> in the cell walls or other elements (possibly vacuoles?) within the walls
> to provide us with a much better signal to noise ratio.
> Many thanks, Colin
>
>
>
>
> The Hielander
> Colin Macqueen      [log in to unmask]
> Confocal Facility   The University of Queensland  Fax +61-7-3365-4522
>