FIG. 1.

(a) Typical blue-green sporulating colonies of A. fumigatus Fresenius (left panel) are shown compared to fluffy white colonies of the poorly sporulating variant, which are composed of predominantly sterile hyphae (right panel). Both pictures were taken after 7 days of incubation on CZD at 35°C. (b) Comparison of the radial growth of the atypical and wild-type A. fumigatus strains, with both isolates growing on CZD. Each gray square represents the average radius of colony growth of seven atypical A. fumigatus isolates, and the white triangles represent the average radius of colony growth of A. fumigatus wild-type isolates from three individual experiments (± the standard deviation). Radial growth was measured as the radius of the expanding colony in millimeters (y axis) relative to hours of incubation (x axis). Growth rates during a 37°C incubation are shown. Growth rates did not differ when the isolates were incubated at 25°C or when they were grown on multiple media (not shown). (c) Reduction of the XTT dye by the atypical (white triangles) and wild-type (gray squares) isolates over time. The XTT dye was used as an indicator of fungal burden.