Figure 4.

Length of lag phase versus maximum rate of germination for four strains of extremophilic fungi: (a) Aspergillus penicillioides JH06THH; (b) X. bisporus FRR 3443; (c) X. bisporus FRR 1522; and (d) Xerochrysium xerophilum FRR 0530. Length of the pre-germination phase and maximum rate of germination were determined on malt-extract  yeast-extract phosphate  agar (MYPiA) supplemented with diverse stressor(s) and incubated at 30 °C for up to 50 days. Media were supplemented with: glycerol (red dots), at 7.0 and 7.1 M, with water-activity values of 0.707 and 0.664, respectively; glycerol (5.5 M) + NaCl at 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 1.6 and 1.7 M (green dots), with water-activity values of 0.765, 0.741, 0.709, 0.692 and 0.668, respectively; glycerol (5.5 M) + sucrose at 0.25, 0.50, 0.65 and 0.80 M (blue dots), with water-activity values of 0.734, 0.699, 0.674 and 0.637, respectively; glycerol (5.5 M) + glucose at 0.8 and 1.0 M + fructose at 0.80 and 1.0 M (yellow dots), with water activities of 0.694 and 0.649, respectively; and glycerol (5.5 M) + NaCl (0.5 M) + sucrose at 0.3 and 0.5 M (black dots), with water-activity values of 0.701 and 0.685, respectively. Data were obtained from Fig. S1 (see Experimental procedures), and trend lines showing a correlation between data (whether strong or moderate, see Experimental procedures) are indicated by a solid black line (c,d) while lines fitted which indicated inconsistency between lag and germination rates (i.e. no correlation was observed) are shown as a dashed grey line (a,b).