Abstract
It was shown that desiccation tolerance of M. polymorpha cells is increased by preculture in medium with 0.5M sucrose, and this effect of sucrose is partly replaced by the same concentration of mannitol. M. polymorpha cells were desiccated on silica gel and water content of the cells decreased to 0.1g/gDW after 24hrs of desiccation. In non-precultured cells, no survival of cells was observed after desiccation. However, approximately 100% and 20% of survival were observed in the cells precultured with 0.5M sucrose and 0.5M mannitol, respectively. Sucrose content of precultured cells was about four times higher than that of non-precultured cells. When the cells precultured with 0.5M mannitol were washed with medium containing 0.5M sucrose and then desiccated for 24hrs, the survival of cells was almost 100%. These results suggest that intra- and extracellular sucrose act an important role on the development of desiccation tolerance in M. polymorpha cells.
