FIGURE 4.

Phenotypic characterizations of C. rosea WT, deletion and complementation strains. (A,B) Deletion of lysm2 affects hyphal protection. After 2 weeks of inoculation no visible difference in mycelial disintegration was found between the WT and the deletion strains. However, after 12 weeks of inoculation, mycelial disintegration was distinct in the Δlysm2 and Δlysm1Δlysm2 deletion strains. (C) Conidiation of WT, lysm deletion and complementation strains on PDA medium after 2 and 12 weeks of inoculation. The number of conidia from each treatment was normalized to their respective mycelial biomass. (D–F) Deletion of lysm1 or lysm2 affects the mycelial pellet formation in liquid media. (G) Biomass production in C. rosea WT and deletion strains 12 weeks post inoculation. Biomass production was determined measuring mycelial dry weight. (H) Chitinase activity analysis in culture filtrates from C. rosea WT and the deletion strains 2 weeks, 7 weeks and 12 wpi in liquid SMS medium with 1% glucose. Error bars represent standard deviation based on five biological replicates. Different letters indicate statistically significant differences based on Tukey HSD method at the 95% significance level.