Trypan Blue Dye is an Effective and Inexpensive Way to Determine the Viability of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis Zoospores

Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) has been implicated in hundreds of amphibian declines and is the focus of a vast amount of research. Despite this, there is no reported efficient way to assess Bd viability. Discriminating between live and dead Bd would help determine the dose of live Bd zoospores and whether factors have lethal or sublethal effects on Bd. We tested whether trypan blue, a common stain to discriminate live and dead cells, could be used to assess Bd viability. We show that the proportion of live zoospores (zoospores that excluded the trypan blue dye) matched the proportion of known live zoospores added to cultures. In contrast, all of the zoosporangia stages of Bd stained blue. These results demonstrate that trypan blue can be used to determine the viability of Bd zoospores but not zoosporangia. We recommend using trypan blue to report the number of live zoospores to which hosts are exposed.