Analysis of Fungal Pellets by UV-Visible Spectrum Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy.

The application of the UV-visible spectrum diffuse reflectance spectroscopy for the determination of intracellular pH in vivo, for determination of cytochrome content, and for the noninvasive in vivo detection of the redox state of fungal mitochondrial cytochromes in filamentous fungi is introduced. The time course of the intracellular pH values, mitochondrial cytochromes, and CO-binding pigments content and the correlations between the actual redox state of cytochrome aa(3) and saturation of growth medium with oxygen in pellets of the basidiomycete Phanerochaete chrysosporium were determined. As the test microorganism, the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae was used. UV-visible spectrum diffuse reflectance spectroscopy proved to be a promising method for the quick and simple analysis of light-impermeable biological structures for which the classical transmittance spectrophotometric methods are difficult to implement.