A method for comparison of growth media in objective identification of Penicillium based on multi-spectral imaging

We consider the problems of using excessive growth media for identification and performing objective identification of fungi at the species level. We propose a method for choosing the subset of growth media, which provides the best discrimination between several fungal species. Furthermore, we propose the use of multi-spectral imaging as a means of objective identification.

Three species of the fungal genus Penicillium are subject to classification. To obtain an objective classification we use multi-spectral images. Previously, RGB images have proven useful for the purpose. We use multi-spectral bands as they provide additional information about the chemistry of the fungal colonies.

In this study three media [Czapek yeast extract agar (CYA), oatmeal agar (OAT), and yeast extract sucrose agar (YES)] have been compared on their ability to discriminate between the three species. We propose a statistical method to test which medium or combination of media gives the best discrimination.

Statistical tests indicate that YES combined with CYA is the best choice of media in this case. However, for the objective identification one medium is sufficient to discriminate between the species. Statistical tests show that there are significant differences between the species on all individual media, and that these differences are largest on YES.

The objective identification has been performed solely by means of digital image analysis. The features obtained from the image analysis merely correspond to macro-morphological features. The species have been classified using only 3–4 of the spectral bands with a 100% correct classification rate using both leave-one-out cross-validation and test set validation.