Determination of the Mycelium and Antigens of a Number of Micromycetes in Soil Extracts via Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay

Sixteen variants of test systems (two-site sandwich and competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)) were studied to determine the concentration of microfungi, some of which are known opportunistic pathogens for humans, in soil extracts. The correlation of the amount of fungal biomass (the length of the growing mycelium) with the concentrations of antigens detected by the two-site sandwich ELISA method and the competitive ELISA method was evaluated. It has been shown that the methods are highly effective in the case of long incubation (more than 5 days) of soil samples and are ineffective for short-term incubation, because there was no correlation between hypha length and antigen concentration during the first day of cultivation. The perspectivity of ELISA methods for the detection of some soil microfungi from genera Aspergillus (Asp. flavus, Asp. fumigatus, Asp. niger), Fusarium (F. solani, F. poae), and others (Alternaria alternata, Phoma lingham, Mucor hiemalis) was shown. The competitive ELISA method was more efficient than two-site sandwich ELISA.