Identification and Biological Characteristics of Three Strains of Mortierella

The nutrition requirement, growth temperature, pH value of medium and other biological characteristics of three Mortierella strains isolated from soil were studied. The results showed that there were significant differences in biological characteristics of the three strains. The optimum nitrogen source of the three strains was peptone, while the optimum carbon sources of the strain 1, strain 2 and strain 3 was glucose, starch and sucrose respectively. The optimum growth temperature for strain 2 was 30℃, whereas it was 5℃ for strain 1 and strain 3. The three strains could all grow on media with pH value 4 to 9 although pH value 7 was more suitable. The three strains were identified to belong to Mortierella alpine by ITS rDNA sequence analysis.