Figure 4.
Effect of malic acid on OTA synthesis by A. carbonarius in SGM media. Solid SGM-media was supplemented with 1–4% concentrations of malic acid and inoculated with 100 µL of a 106 spore/mL. OTA accumulation and relative expression of laeA and OTA gene cluster were evaluated 6 days post-inoculation. Relative expression was normalized using β-tubulin as an internal control. Error bars represent a standard error of three independent biological replicates. Different letters above the columns indicate statistically significant differences at p < 0.05, as determined using the Tukey’s honest significant difference test.