Contributors should make every effort to include as much information as possible on their entries, especially if the fungi have been used already in experiments or they come from novel environments. This information is crucial for two primary reasons:

1. It provides important information in defining culture conditions that optimize fungal growth and sporulation and minimize mortality or attenuation of infectivity in subsequent culture cycles, and
2. It improves the ability of INVAM to make decisions in choice of germplasm by researchers seeking to test specific hypotheses, to make specific kinds of comparisons, to repeat experiments by others, or to build on results of published experiments.

The following information is most important

Characteristics of the site from which the fungal isolate originated:

• Location (latitude and longitude are becoming absolutely essential for accuracy)
• Plant associations (suspected host plant and surrounding plants)
• Soil properties (physical and chemical)
• General topography and climatic conditions

Pot culture history if at least one trap culture has been established:

• Start and harvest dates of culture
• Host species
• Physical and chemical properties of culture medium.

If the fungus has been used in published experiments, a list of applicable references would be valuable.

Click here to view an excellent example of data on accession MD124 provided by Dorothy Watson.