Surface disinfestation of vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhiza fungal spores. I. Effects of concentration and exposition time of disinfecting agents and antibiotics

Abstract

The effects of disinfecting agents (sodium hypochlorite, chloramine-T, mercurium chloride and phormaldehyde) and antibiotics (streptomycin, gentamycin, pimaricin and chloranphenicol) were studied on germination of Gigaspora margarita spores and on incidence of fungal and bacterial contaminants. The use of sodium hypochlorite either 0.5 or 1% for twelve minutes eliminated spore contaminant microorganisms, causing little damage to its germination. The use phormaldehyde and mercurium chloride was very efective on disinfestation, but reduced drastically spore viability. The use of antibiotics also reduced VAM fungal spore germination. Streptomycin at 50 and 100 ppm and gentamicin 25 and 50 ppm showed to be effective for VAM fungal spore disinfestation.