Fig 4. Differential expression of Rhizopus delemar putative aquaporin genes (RdAQP1 and RdAQP2) during germination.

R. delemar spores were incubated in SPAF and harvested at three main stages: resting (time 0), swelling (30–180 min) and polar growth (210 min). qPCR was performed on cDNA reverse-transcribed from the RNA extracted from the spores. Rhizopus 18S rRNA served as the reference gene. Values of the steady-state levels of gene transcripts were determined as the ratio between two conditions using the 2Δ-ΔCt method [50]. Values are means ± SE. Different upper or lowercase letters above the bars denote significant differences between measurement times in RdAQP1 or RdAQP2 respectively (P < 0.05).