Simple Microfluidics for Complex Organisms: a Microfluidic Chip System for Growth and Morphogenesis Studies of Filamentous Fungi

Filamentous fungi are of special interest for the production of various economically important metabolites. Up to now only a limited number of microfluidic systems for handling fungal organisms have been reported. Here a simple and disposable microfluidic chip-system for high-throughput growth and morphogenesis studies of filamentous fungi is presented. The device enables trapping of multiple single fungal cell forms at different development stages and allows for real-time growth analysis under constant environmental cultivation conditions. As a model organism the industrially relevant production organism Penicillium chrysogenum was investigated. We analyzed different morphological stages, ranging from simple spores, over multi-branched hyphal structures to complex mycelia. This allowed for quantitative measurements of industrial important parameters such as the specific growth rate. The presented work paves the way for future investigations on cell-to-cell heterogeneity as well as advanced morphology engineering of fungal systems.