FIG. 4.

Photoinduction of conidiation. The wild type (WT) and three tmkA loss-of-function mutants were grown in total darkness. At the indicated times, the cultures were exposed to 480 μmol of blue light m⁻² and fixed in ethanol 24 h later (left panels). Fluence response curves were obtained for photoinduction for the wild type and the tmkA mutant MKT95 (right panels). For the mutant, the central region and light-induced ring were analyzed separately; each region was cut from the filter paper-supported cultures before spore extraction. The amounts of light required to reach 63% (1 − 1/e) saturation, calculated from the curve fits, are k = 66.2 and 62.0 μmol m⁻² for the wild type and MKT95, respectively. In the middle panel, the sporulation in the central region of tmkA mutant colonies (see photographs at the left) was monitored. Error bars indicate standard errors from five replicate cultures.