FULLY-AUTOMATIC MEASUREMENT OF MYCELIAL MORPHOLOGY BY IMAGE-ANALYSIS

A fully-automatic image analysis method is described for the comprehensive and quantitative analysis of the morphology of filamentous mycelia grown in submerged cultures. The method not only allows rapid measurement of important morphological parameters on freely dispersed mycelia but also provides a novel characterization of the aggregated (clumped) form. The latter can constitute more than 90 % of the biomass in some fermentations and might therefore be expected to have a major influence on broth rheology, fermenter mixing, mass transfer, and hence fermentation productivity. Clumps are characterized not only in terms of the percentage of mycelia in this form, as in earlier work, but also in terms of clump area, perimeter, compactness, and roughness. The method has been tested on laboratory-scale Streptomyces clavuligerus and Penicillium chrysogenum fermentations. It is not only more comprehensive than previous methods but also faster and thus will permit more extensive physiological and engineering studies on mycelial fermentations than has previously been possible.