Fig. 3.

Pectin methylesterase and polygalacturonases are required for robust growth on pectin. (A) N. crassa strains containing deletions of genes involved in pectic backbone degradation (Table 1) were assayed for their phenotype when grown on pectin as sole C-source for four days. The fungal dry weight and the consumed pectin (the difference between day 0 and day 4 in total reducing ends in the culture supernatants) were measured and compared to WT (FGSC #2489). Bars represent standard deviations (n=3). (B) Silver stained SDS-PAGE of secreted proteins from the mutants in (A). The same volume (30 μL) of supernatant was loaded in each lane. (C) Visible growth phenotype of the same cultures as in (A) and (B) after four days of growth on 1% pectin in 24-deep-well plates. Representative pictures are shown. Due to a former mis-annotation, δ10966 is actually a deletion of the pectate lyase ply-1 (NCU06326) and NCU06327, encoding a cytochrome P450 protein. However, no phenotype was observed under these conditions.