RESUMO
Mucor species exhibit fungal dimorphism in controlled environments. In this work, we examined the effect of myoinositol supplementation on the growth and morphology of Mucor circinelloides. Using sporangiospores as inoculums, diverse morphologies were induced in synthetic broth incubated at pH 4.5, temp. 20 degrees C, ambient. The morphologies included thallic suptypes (holoblastic-, holothallic-, enterothallic conidia as well as vesicular conidial headgroups), which were determinate in growth, and proliferating yeast forms. Analysis of variance, p<0.05, showed that time had significant impact on growth. A separation of means, l.s.d. 14.34, p<0.05, indicated that myoinositol supplementation at 500 microM supported the least growth, but 2.0-3.0 mM levels had the higher values, and this was followed by the control, 300 microM, 1.0, 2.0, 5.0 mM supplementations. Although the predominant morphology, that is, terminal budding yeast cells was not quantitated, observation showed that it was more preponderant, had optimal size and cell shape became more regular at 2.0 mM myoinositol supplementation.