Cryopreservation and Freeze-Drying of Fungi Employing Centrifugal and Shelf Freeze-Drying

The aim of preserving a fungus is to maintain it in a viable state without change to its genetic, physiological, or anatomical characters. There are numerous methodologies available to preserve a fungus, but the two methods widely used by culture collections (biological or genetic resource centers) to achieve successful preservation are cryopreservation with liquid nitrogen using controlled-rate freezing and centrifugal freeze-drying. Generic methods are often used, but specific variations of a method may be required in order to achieve optimal stability. No single method can be applied to all fungi. More recently, techniques such as vitrification and encapsulation cryopreservation have been used to preserve recalcitrant fungi. The protocols described within this chapter have been developed over many years at one of the world’s largest culture collections of filamentous fungi.