Stains in Microscopy

[lettuce]

hi,
any ideas where one can buy paraphenylenediamine? should it be in crystal form?
thanks

[Ditiola]

Hi

I had not heard about this stain. What is it normally used for in Mycology?

I looked it up on Google and apparently it is commonly used as a hair dye.

I also found the following extract from an American fungi journal

"After spore germination and initial hyphal growth, suspensions of either Saccharomyces cerevisiae or Aspergillus nidulans conidia were added to
the slides as standards of known genome size. Nuclei were stained with
a mixture of Sybr green and paraphenylenediamine and viewed under
blue light excitation."

[poschiavanus]

Originally Posted by Ditiola

Hi

I had not heard about this stain. What is it normally used for in Mycology?

I looked it up on Google and apparently it is commonly used as a hair dye.

I also found the following extract from an American fungi journal

"After spore germination and initial hyphal growth, suspensions of either Saccharomyces cerevisiae or Aspergillus nidulans conidia were added to
the slides as standards of known genome size. Nuclei were stained with
a mixture of Sybr green and paraphenylenediamine and viewed under
blue light excitation."

It's one of the 3 major stains used in field lichenology (known as 'P' or 'Pd'): but has problems in that a) it may be carcincogenic and b) it readily oxidises so preparing a stablish solution requires care. It's particularly useful on Cladonia, but is used on a wide range of other lichens.

The BLS has a good description of the health issues involved with this stain.