Figure 5.

Germination behaviour of F. fujikuroi conidia analysed by the HyphaTracker toolbox. (a) Histogram of the probability density of germling areas after 15 hours incubation time. Note, that all strains with exception of the CarO-deficient strain exhibit similar germination profile in this histogram. In contrast the rhodopsin deficient mutant exhibits a much higher number of hyphae with areas >750 µm². (b) Hyphae areas generated with HyphaTracker plotted as function of time. The lines represent median (coloured for wild type, ΔOpsA, CarO+, and CarO− as indicated) and quartiles (gray) for each dataset (wild-type: n = 133 in 5 independent experiments), ΔOpsA: n = 83, 4 exp., CarO+: n = 67, 3 exp., CarO−: n = 21, 9 exp.). Obviously, germination of the CarO-deficient strain starts earlier and growth occurs faster than in the CarO⁺ strain, wild type, and the OpsA deletion mutant (c–e). Probability density functions as estimated by fitting experimental data using the Baranyi model. Histograms are shown for offset (initial area; c), lag time (d) and rate constant (e) for wild type, ΔOpsA, CarO+, and CarO− in black, red, blue, and magenta, respectively.