- Culture and growth condition
(1) F. verticillioides strain 3693 was routinely grown on complete medium (CM). For conidiation, mycelial culture was inoculated on carboxy methyl cellulose medium (CMC) and incubated at 26℃ for 2 weeks.
- Protoplasting media preparation
(1) Protoplasting medium consists of cell wall degrading enzymes and osmotic stabilizer.
(2) All the lyophilized enzyme powders except driselase were first dissolved in appropriate protoplasting media. The working stock of the driselase enzyme was prepared by dissolving the enzyme powder at 2 concentration in sterile water for 30 min using the magnetic stirrer. Then the enzyme solution is filtered through the 0.2micron filter to remove the un-dissolved residues. The 0.5 ml of filtered 2 driselase solution was taken in a test tube and to that 0.5 ml of 2 osmotic stabilizer was added so that the final 1 ml of the protoplasting medium contains 1 concentration of osmotic stabilizer and 1 concentration of driselase.
(3) Stock solution of lysing enzyme was prepared 20x concentration in water and incubated on ice for 10 min. The required amount of the lysing enzyme was added to the required amount of osmotic stabilizer to constitute the protoplasting medium.
(4) β-glucuronidase was added at 200 units/ml of the protoplasting medium. Different osmotic chemicals such as KCl, MgSO4, NaCl, sorbitol and sucrose were used as osmotic stabilizers in the protoplasting medium. They were prepared in different concentrations viz., 0.6 M, 0.8 M, 1.0 M, 1.2 M, 1.4 M, etc. Appropriate amount of the salts was dissolved in water to achieve the required concentration and the pH was maintained at 5.6 to 5.8 and autoclave sterilized. Each treatment was replicated three times, and the experiment was repeated three times.
- Protoplast preparation
(1) One ml of conidia of F. verticillioides at 109 conidia/ml was inoculated in 100 ml of YPD medium and incubated at 28℃, 250 rpm.
(2) For harvesting different growth stages of fungi such as germinated conidia (2-10 μm length of protruded outgrowth from the conidia), germ tube (50-100 μm length of germ tube from the conidia) and well grown mycelia (germ tube grown beyond 200 μm length with two or three branched mycelia) for protoplasting, the inoculated conidia in YPD medium was incubated for 8, 12 and 24 h post-inoculation respectively.
(3) The germinated conidia, germ tube and mycelium were collected using miracloth and the adhering residual medium was removed by washing off with sterile water three times. The mycelium was collected and used for protoplasting or stored at 4℃ for a week.
(4) 25 mg of fungal material per ml of the protoplasting medium was taken in a test tube. The fungal material was mixed well into the protoplasting medium by gentle vortexing and incubated at 30℃ and 100 rpm for different time points. The protoplasts were counted using a hemocytometer.
This protocol only provides a guideline, and should be modified according to your specific needs.
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