Occurrence of dormant ascospores in soil

Abstract

WARCUP1 reported that steaming was a simple selective method for isolating Ascomycetes from soil. The method used, however, gave little indication of the temperature at which most soil fungi are killed and at which Ascomycetes survive. With the development of equipment by which steam-air mixtures at various temperatures may be obtained2, it was decided to reinvestigate the heat tolerance of Ascomycetes in soil. © 1963 Nature Publishing Group.