Figure 2.

Deletion of ramA delays polarity establishment and viability. (A) Polarity establishment rates of the ramA isogenic set. Conidia (1 × 10⁶) of each strain were inoculated on sterile coverslips submerged in GMM broth and incubated at 37°C. At the designated time points, coverslips were mounted for bright field microscopy, and one hundred conidia were examined. The percent of polarized germlings was scored as the number of conidia which had produced a visible germ tube at that time point. Measurements and error bars represent the mean and standard error of the mean (SEM) of 3 independent experiments. (B) Conidia of the ΔramA strain were stained with propidium iodide (PI, red) to detect nuclear material and with calcofluor white (CFW, blue) to detect chitin in cell walls. Arrowheads denote CFW-stained conidia in which no nuclear material is detected. (C) One hundred PI-stained conidia of the wild type (WT) and ΔramA strains were examined by fluorescence microscopy, and percent positive PI staining was scored. Results are the average of 3 independent experiments ( ± SD).