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To Rene, "Perf. Fungi E."
Your negative assumptions concerning the storage technique
article were made without even reading it. There lies the problem.
The statistics that you do not have available were contained in the
article's References.
One Reference that appeared in Applied Microbiology, Aug. 1974,
by M.R.McGinnis, A.A.Padhye, and L.Ajello described the tests
that were performed. "Four hundred and seventeen isolates of 147
species belonging to 66 genera of filamentous fungi, yeasts, and
aerobic actinomycetes were maintained in sterile distilled water at
room temperature over periods ranging from 12 to 60 months in
four independent experiments. Of the 417 cultures, 389 (93%)
survived storage." The References are obtainable from your
University library.
Joe Kish

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Long-term storage of ectomycorrhizal basidiomycetes (Hebeloma spp.) at low temperature
M. Tibbett, F.E. Sanders, J.W.G. Cairney
Journal of Basic Microbiology
Volume 39, Issue 5-6, 1999. Pages 381-384
? 1999 WILEY-VCH Verlag Berlin GmbH, Fed. Rep. of Germany


Abstract

A method for maintaining viable cultures of ectomycorrhizal Hebeloma strains in cold liquid culture medium is described. Isolates of Hebeloma spp., collected over a wide geographic range, were stored at 2 ?C for a period of three years. All cultures survived this storage period, a greater time period and success rate than has previously been reported for the long term storage of ectomycorrhizal basidiomycetes. The method may prove useful for long-term storage of other basidiomycete genera.

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Hi Mike. We store our culture collection with water storage (but we also
have a set of everything in liquid nitrogen too!). The cultures are
actually grown on water agar (1.5% agar in water, no nutrients) and then we
cut out little plugs and drop them in sterile distilled water, so you don't
have to scrape off any mycelium. My former boss helped pioneer this
technique, and he estimates that you can store most cultures for 5 years.
We have something like 13,000 cultures of wood decay fungi that we are
storing this way with no trouble that I've heard about.

Jessie Micales, Project Leader
Center for Forest Mycology Research
Forest Products Laboratory
Madison, WI

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fastfred said:
dH2O is not a very good storage medium. Besides containing no nutrients the dH2O will suck out the nutrients from the mycelium.
The end result: Death by osmosis.

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"Four hundred and seventeen isolates of 147
species belonging to 66 genera of filamentous fungi, yeasts, and
aerobic actinomycetes were maintained in sterile distilled water at
room temperature over periods ranging from 12 to 60 months in
four independent experiments. Of the 417 cultures, 389 (93%)
survived storage." The References are obtainable from your
University library.

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...he estimates that you can store most cultures for 5 years.
We have something like 13,000 cultures of wood decay fungi that we are
storing this way with no trouble that I've heard about.

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Osmosis doesn't work this way. It actually works exactly the opposite way. Water flows from the area with the lower concentration of ions(distilled water) to the area with the higher concentration of ions(a cell). Not the other way round.

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And, this method works, as the numerous experiments that have been made clearly show.

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Of the 151 isolates taken from water storage (after
storage up to 7 yr), 94% were viable. For those isolates
with previously recorded growth rates, the growth rates
were not consistently affected by the distilled water
storage method (TABLE I). For those for which previous
information was not available, the growth rates
were as expected (TABLE I). Thus, water storage did
not have an obvious influence on culture viability or
growth rate.

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