Fig. 1. Repression of erg6 expression inhibits A. fumigatus growth in vitro.

A The expression level of erg6 in indicated conditions as analyzed by RT-qPCR. Mycelia were harvested after 16 h in liquid GMM at 37 °C, 250 rpm. Gene expression was normalized to the reference gene, tubA, and data presented relative to control group as mean ± SD of log₂ fold change. n = 3 independent experiments. Two-tailed Student t-test was used for statistical analysis. B Spot-dilution assays were performed on GMM agar plates with the parental and pTetOff-erg6 strains in the indicated doxycycline (DOX) levels. For all assays, suspension aliquots of 5 μl containing 50,000, 5,000, 500, and 50 total conidia were inoculated and plates were incubated at 37 °C for 48 h. C Microscopic images of the parental and pTetOff-erg6 strains after 16 h of exposure to the indicated doxycycline levels in static GMM culture at 37 °C. Microscopy was performed on Nikon NiU with bright field settings. Scale bar = 10 µm.