Scone Surprise - YUK

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mrsonchus
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Scone Surprise - YUK

#1 Post by mrsonchus » Tue Nov 27, 2018 11:00 pm

Hi all, thought you may like to see a few images I took the other day, rather 'unplanned' as they were, they're also of pretty poor quality, apologies.....

I was literally just about to chomp a tasty-looking scone made several days before by my dear Wife when I thought I saw a faint 'whiteness' about the surface - almost invisible but hey, for a fellow with a stereo 'scope handy - no problem to check this out!

Anyway, I scraped a tiny bit of the surface of said scone and smeared the scrapings onto a slide and stained lightly with lactophenol cotton blue stain, as I suspected fungus! I think I was right!
I've no idea what fungus it is, and the images are so poor that I'm unlikely to be able to find out....

These look like bunches of whatever a fungus has for 'flowers'?
Again sorry for the poor images,
ws_2pic1.jpg
ws_2pic1.jpg (26.29 KiB) Viewed 5300 times
and,
ws_2pic2.jpg
ws_2pic2.jpg (29.31 KiB) Viewed 5300 times
I also had a peek with polarisation to extinction - nothing with the fungus, but the starch from the scone is clearly visible in 'blobs' of different sizes - Maltese crosses everywhere!
ws_scone starch droplets.jpg
ws_scone starch droplets.jpg (52.53 KiB) Viewed 5300 times
Interesting! Oh yes, I decided on some Doritos instead of the scone for a snack.....

John B.
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einman
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Re: Scone Surprise - YUK

#2 Post by einman » Tue Nov 27, 2018 11:40 pm

Yes. Now I carry around a stereoscope to examine all my snacks prior to consuming them..:)

Nice shots! Very colorful too.

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mrsonchus
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Re: Scone Surprise - YUK

#3 Post by mrsonchus » Tue Nov 27, 2018 11:52 pm

Haha! Thanks einman old chap! :lol:

John B.
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MicroBob
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Re: Scone Surprise - YUK

#4 Post by MicroBob » Wed Nov 28, 2018 10:47 am

einman wrote:Yes. Now I carry around a stereoscope to examine all my snacks prior to consuming them..:)
I'm sure this will provide lively experiences especially when discussing your stained findings with you table neighbours in a better restaurant! :lol:

@ John B: Does lactophenol cotton blue stain just stain everything or does it differentiate between different tissues?

Bob

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SutherlandDesmids
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Re: Scone Surprise - YUK

#5 Post by SutherlandDesmids » Wed Nov 28, 2018 12:00 pm

These look like bunches of whatever a fungus has for 'flowers'?
If my memory serves me they're conidiophores bearing conidia, or asexual, wind-borne spores, produced by mitosis so no, they're not analogous to a flower as they are purely a means of asexual propagation, in terms of the Plant Kingdom (an obsolete analogy -- the Fungi are opisthokonts and actually nearer animals than plants, they stand in their own kingdom) a prolongation of the current generation, rather than an elaborate structure that gives rise to the next stage in the antithetic alteration of generations by meiosis.
“If you march your Winter Journeys you will have your reward, so long as all you want is a penguin's egg.”

-- Apsley Cherry-Garrard, 'The Worst Journey in the World' vol. ii p. 578

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mrsonchus
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Re: Scone Surprise - YUK

#6 Post by mrsonchus » Wed Nov 28, 2018 12:09 pm

SutherlandDesmids wrote:
These look like bunches of whatever a fungus has for 'flowers'?
If my memory serves me they're conidiophores bearing conidia, or asexual, wind-borne spores, produced by mitosis so no, they're not analogous to a flower as they are purely a means of asexual propagation, in terms of the Plant Kingdom (an obsolete analogy -- the Fungi are opisthokonts and actually nearer animals than plants, they stand in their own kingdom) a prolongation of the current generation, rather than an elaborate structure that gives rise to the next stage in the antithetic alteration of generations by meiosis.
Very true old chap, I've sent you a pm re 'scopes.

John B. :D
John B

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mrsonchus
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Re: Scone Surprise - YUK

#7 Post by mrsonchus » Wed Nov 28, 2018 12:40 pm

MicroBob wrote:
einman wrote:Yes. Now I carry around a stereoscope to examine all my snacks prior to consuming them..:)
I'm sure this will provide lively experiences especially when discussing your stained findings with you table neighbours in a better restaurant! :lol:

@ John B: Does lactophenol cotton blue stain just stain everything or does it differentiate between different tissues?

Bob
Hi Bob!

Lactophenol is one of the go-to stains for fungi I believe and is particularly good at differentiating fungi. The aspect of differentiation with stains is though by no means as simple as that. For a stain to differentiate and stain selectively many factors come into play, concentration, solvent used (e.g. water, OH, oil....), other stains also present, order of application of stains, pH of tissue or stain solvent, the list is endless. Its not easy at all to add a stain to a tissue and achieve totally selective staining, more a balancing act of many interacting factors. But, for fungi Lactophenol will give a nice strong result, and a high contrast is an absolute must for photography through a 'scope I've found - the long way around... :)

It would have been just as well to have used say Safranin, or alcian-blue or methylene-blue come to that. I made some very nice differentiations for some slides of fungal-infected Sonchus.arvensis leaves by using safranin to stain the fungus involved....

Here's a safranin-only fungal stain, the fungus is within the tissue of the Sonchus.arvensis leaf,
ws_sonchus arvensis leaf fungus 2.jpg
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Here's a version using alcian-blue for non-fungal cells and safranin again for the fungus,
ws_slide sarv33.jpg
ws_slide sarv33.jpg (80.31 KiB) Viewed 5244 times
This version is a triple-stain using alcian-blue again for the non-fungal leaf tissue and two stains for the fungal tissue, orange-g to pick-out the 'stalk' or 'stipe' and safranin to stain the conidium (I think these terms are correct, but I know very little about fungus).
ws fungus labelled 4.jpg
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Here's a section of the leaf used, unstained of course, as seen under my stereo 'scope before subsequent processing, sectioning and staining,
ws fungus labelled 1.jpg
ws fungus labelled 1.jpg (102.16 KiB) Viewed 5244 times
Again 'raw' - from above the chamber containing the fungal structures seen above is seen to have a surrounding of finger-like paraphyses and the conidia that they protect.....
ws_sonchus arvensis fungus measured.jpg
ws_sonchus arvensis fungus measured.jpg (32.56 KiB) Viewed 5244 times
Fungi may be stained with many stains, Toluidine blue is another water-borne stain that is great fro living tissue and will also give differentiation via metachromasia (it stains different colours for different tissue components) on it's own - easy to buy too - a great first stain for fresh un-treated staining.

I really need to learn a bit more re the names of the parts, I've had a go at labelling but still not sure....

John B.
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einman
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Re: Scone Surprise - YUK

#8 Post by einman » Wed Nov 28, 2018 10:54 pm

beautiful

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Re: Scone Surprise - YUK

#9 Post by billbillt » Wed Nov 28, 2018 11:59 pm

Hi John B.,

I think you did your usual first-class job here.....

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Re: Scone Surprise - YUK

#10 Post by wstenberg » Thu Nov 29, 2018 3:00 am

Doesn't all bread have yeast all over it? I've never had a scone; not sure exactly what it is, but it sounds rather bread-like...
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MicroBob
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Re: Scone Surprise - YUK

#11 Post by MicroBob » Thu Nov 29, 2018 12:25 pm

Hi John,
thank you for the explanation redarding the staining process. I will give this a try sooner or later.

Bob

mnmyco
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Re: Scone Surprise - YUK

#12 Post by mnmyco » Thu Nov 29, 2018 2:36 pm

That is a species of Penicillium. Personally, I prefer fuchsine in lactic acid. No phenol, the lactic acid is a fixative and thick enough to take days to dry out, and has a different RI than the stained fungal tissues further enhancing contrast.

mnmyco

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Aenima
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Re: Scone Surprise - YUK

#13 Post by Aenima » Thu Nov 29, 2018 4:02 pm

wow - no idea about the technical aspects or biology of it, but the images are certainly pretty.
I had no clue that fungus was so attractive up close. Lovely shots.

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Re: Scone Surprise - YUK

#14 Post by mnmyco » Mon Dec 03, 2018 4:58 pm

wstenberg wrote:Doesn't all bread have yeast all over it? I've never had a scone; not sure exactly what it is, but it sounds rather bread-like...
Yeast will look like large bacteria, and will not survive the cooking process. Also, not all bread has yeast.

mnmyco

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