7. Effects on post-harvest pathogenic fungal spores germination
Aliquots (0.1 mL) of solutions with different CHI concentrations
were mixed with 0.1 mL of each fungal spore suspension (approximately
106 spores/mL) obtained from cultures grown for 10 days on
Sabouraud agar at 25–28 °C. Then, 0.1 mL of the suspension was placed
at the center of a sterile glass slide and incubated in a moist chamber at
25–28 °C for 24 h. After this period, each slide was fixed with
lactophenol cotton blue stain, and spore germination was observed by
light microscopy. Approximately 200 spores were counted on each
slide. The efficacy of CHI-mediated inhibition of post-harvest fungal
spore germination was evaluated by comparing the number of germinated
spores in the media supplemented with CHI with those obtained
in the control assay, in which the CHI solutions were replaced by
Sabouraud broth