Fig 1.

StuA regulates vegetative growth, sporulation, and pathogenicity in A. alternata. (A) Vegetative growth, hyphal morphology, hyphal tip growth, and sporulation of ΔstuA, Z7, and the complementation ΔstuA-C strains on PDA. Conidia produced by the ΔstuA strain are indicated by red arrows. (B) Quantification of colony diameter. Error bars represent standard deviations. Different letters indicate a statistical significance according to the one-way ANOVA test (P < 0.05). (C) Quantification of conidia production. (D) Inoculation of Z7, ΔstuA, and ΔstuA-C by placing mycelial plugs on detached Hongjv leaves. A blank agar plug was used as the mock. Necrotic lesions were recorded 3 days post-inoculation (dpi).