FIG. 3.

Silencing of PbHAD32 leads to distinct P. brasiliensis yeast cell morphology without affecting cell vitality. (A) Microscopic evaluation of PbWt yeast cells and yeast cells from two different PbHAD32 aRNA strains generated with different aRNA oligonucleotides (PbHAD32 aRNA1, AS1; PbHAD32 aRNA2, AS2). Magnifications, ×40. (B) Vitality of PbWt, PbWt transformed with the empty vector (PbWt + EV), and PbHAD32 aRNA yeast cells. (C) Cell viability (represented on top of the bars) and gene expression levels of PbHAD32 in PbWt, PbWt transformed with the empty vector, and PbHAD32 aRNA yeast cells during batch culture growth (gene expression levels obtained by RT-PCR were normalized to the level of expression of the internal reference, TUB2; *, P < 0.05 compared with PbWt and PbWt transformed with the empty vector).