Figure 5. Microtiter-plate and shake-flask fermentation assays.

(a) Relative α-amylase activity of the O58 strain (144 replicates) and the strains selected using the microfluidic screening (1,272 clones), analyzed using a robotic microtitre plate screening system. The standard deviation σ of the O58 strain is indicated. (b) Histogram displaying the α-amylase secretion level of 10 of the most active fungi from the plate screen and the wild type O58 strain after 6 days of cultivation at 30 °C in 100 ml of PGS medium. Mutants (gray) and O58 (red) were ranked from the lowest to the highest α-amylase activity. All fermentations were performed in duplicate and error bars correspond to ±1 standard deviation.