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Physiology and Biochemistry

Ergosterol as a Measure of Fungal Growth. L. M. Seitz, U.S. Grain Marketing Research Laboratory, Science and Education Administration, Agricultural Research, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Manhattan, KS 66502; D. B. Sauer(2), R. Burroughs(3), H. E. Mohr(4), and J. D. Hubbard(5). (2)(4)(5)U.S. Grain Marketing Research Laboratory, Science and Education Administration, Agricultural Research, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Manhattan, KS 66502; (3)Department of Grain Science and Industry, Kansas State University, Manhattan 66506. Phytopathology 69:1202-1203. Accepted for publication 16 May 1979. This article is in the public domain and not copyrightable. It may be freely reprinted with customary crediting of the source. The American Phytopathological Society, 1979. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-69-1202.

An ergosterol assay was more sensitive, rapid, and convenient than a chitin assay in measuring Alternaria and Aspergillus growth on milled rice. This finding plus the fact that ergosterol is relatively specific to fungi as the predominant sterol suggest that the ergosterol assay can quantitatively measure total fungal invasion in other substrates.