The occurrence of calcofluor and lectin binding polysaccharides in the outer wall of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal spores

The hyaline outer wall of some spores of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi is of important diagnostic value in identifying species but little is known about the chemical characteristics of this wall. With the use of the fluorochrome calcofluor and of the fluorescein-conjugated lectin wheat germ agglutinin we observed that chitin is one of the main components of the hyaline outer wall of four species of Glomus, and that neither chemical nor enzymic treatments of the spores were capable of changing the binding properties of this polysaccharide.