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Five-Year Preservation of Fusarium Species on Silica Gel and Soil. Carol E. Windels, Assistant professor, Northwest Experiment Station, University of Minnesota, Crookston 56716; Patricia M. Burnes, and Thor Kommedahl. Assistant scientist and Professor, respectively, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Minnesota, St. Paul 55108. Phytopathology 78:107-109. Accepted for publication 14 August 1987. Copyright 1988 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-78-107.

Cultures of 17 Fusarium spp. (461 isolates) that were prepared by the single-spore and hyphal-tip method were stored on both silica gel and sterile soil for 5 yr at 4.5 plus or minus 0.5 C. Species tested included: F. acuminatum, F. avenaceum, F. culmorum, F. dimerum, F. equiseti, F. graminearum, F. lateritium, F. merismoides, F. moniliforme, F. oxysporum, F. poae, F. proliferatum, F. sambucinum, F. semitectum, F. solani, F. sporotrichioides, and F. subglutinans. Survival on silica gel after 3, 4, and 5 yr averaged 94, 90, and 89%, respectively, compared with survival on sterile soil, which averaged 95, 93, and 94%, respectively. Storage on silica gel is quick and easy; fungi do not grow in storage; and repeated isolations can be made from a single tube. Dense (turbid) suspensions of conidia are needed initially to ensure long-term preservation on silica gel.