The Pennsylvania Alliance for Design of Open Textbooks (PA-ADOPT) is pleased to announce the immediate availability of our 19th free and open eTextbook: Mycology Laboratory Manual by Dr. Laura Ramos-Sepulveda, Associate Professor of Biology at Millersville University.
“Mycology Laboratory Manual is an eTextbook designed for undergraduate students to introduce them to mycology. The laboratory manual provides students with foundational knowledge in mycology and hands-on experience with key concepts such as fungal hyphal and yeast growth, asexual and sexual reproduction, fungal identification using morphological and molecular tools, appreciation of mushrooms as food, and molecular transformation of fungi. The final chapter focuses on plant pathology, where students are required to apply scientific thinking to design experiments, troubleshoot, and integrate the skills they developed in the previous chapters.”
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Mycology Laboratory Manual
by Laura Ramos-Sepulveda, Ph.D.
Keywords: mycology, laboratory manual, mushroom hunting, sexual fungal reproduction, asexual fungal reproduction, hyphal growth, yeast growth, Koch’s Postulates, pathogenicity assay
About the Book
Mycology Laboratory Manual (2025) by Laura Ramos-Sepulveda is an eTextbook designed for undergraduate students to introduce them to mycology. The laboratory manual provides students with foundational knowledge in mycology and hands-on experience with key concepts such as fungal hyphal and yeast growth, asexual and sexual reproduction, fungal identification using morphological and molecular tools, appreciation of mushrooms as food, and molecular transformation of fungi. The final chapter focuses on plant pathology, where students are required to apply scientific thinking to design experiments, troubleshoot, and integrate the skills they developed in the previous chapters.
Chapters
- About the Laboratory Manual
- Mycology Preface
- Chapter One: Laboratory Safety and Equipment
- Chapter Two: Fungal Growth
- Chapter Three: Identification of Macro Fruiting Bodies (Mushrooms)
- Chapter Four: Identification of Filamentous Fungi
- Chapter Five: Fungal Sexual vs. Asexual Reproduction
- Chapter Six: Growing Basidiomycota Mushrooms
- Chapter Seven: PEG Mediated Transformation of Fungi
- Chapter Eight: Plant Fungal Pathogens
- Appendix I Preparing Media
- Appendix II: Obtaining Single Fungal Culture and Measuring Fungal Growth
- Appendix III: Using the Compound Microscope
- Appendix IV: Using the Micropipette
- Appendix V: Transcript of “tutorial 03: entering records”
- References
Usage
Readers
The eTextbooks created as a part of this program are provided in two formats: ePub and PDF. Please refer to our Reader Support section for guidance on which format may be best for you and the device(s) you use.
Instructors
If you are an instructor seeking to use this eTextbook in your own course(s) please feel free to download the ePub and/or PDF file(s) for your use, but make sure to complete our eTextbook Usage Survey (this information is used for program evaluation purposes).
If you are interested in making revisions and edits to this eTextbook please note that this is possible since the book is under a Creative Commons License, which allows you to remix, reuse, revise, and redistribute the eTextbook. Please refer to the Faculty Support Page, specifically looking at Remixing. You can download Mycology Laboratory Manual Pages File in order to use the original document to revise and remix the eTextbook for your purposes.
Citations
MLA: Ramos-Sepulveda, Laura. Mycology Laboratory Manual. First, The Pennsylvania Alliance for Design of Open Textbooks (PA-ADOPT), 2025.
APA: Ramos-Sepulveda, L. (2025). Mycology laboratory manual (1st ed.). The Pennsylvania Alliance for Design of Open Textbooks (PA-ADOPT).
Chicago: Ramos-Sepulveda, Laura. Mycology Laboratory Manual. 1st ed. The Pennsylvania Alliance for Design of Open Textbooks (PA-ADOPT), 2025.
Peer Review
This eTextbook went through an Open Peer Review process. The peer review process used the Open SUNY Textbook Peer Review Guidelines, allowing peer reviewers to read the text carefully and evaluate the following:
- Educational Significance of Content including accuracy, appropriate and useful materials, valid and significant concepts, models, and skills, and key elements;
- Effectiveness as a Teaching Resource including a clear explanation of the concepts, alignment of materials to the learning process of the target audience, and alignment of the learning objectives with course goals; and
- Readability and Ease of Use including clarity and comprehensiveness, consistent writing style, readability and ease of use (logic, sequence, and flow), appropriateness for target readership level, and quality of Interactivity and multimedia learning objects.
As a part of the open peer review process, the public review conducted by Dr. Christopher Smyth is made available: Peer Review Document (PDF).
