FIG 1.

Design and setup of A. fumigatus HGT. (A) Point inoculation of the strains used in this study on YAG agar plates containing increasing concentrations of VCZ. Each droplet column (from left to right) contained 10⁴, 10³, 10², or 10 spores per 10-μL droplet. (B) Experimental design of HGT on YAG agar plates. Equal numbers of conidia from a VCZ-resistant strain (donor) and Hyg-resistant (recipient) strain were mixed and plated for 24 h at 37°C, and then agar cubes were excised from the coculture and plated under no/single/double selection for 72 h at 37°C. Conidia were collected and plated under no selection/double selection for 48 h at 37°C. The result of a positive HGT under VCZ+Hyg selection is displayed. (C) Experimental scheme of the HGT experiments carried out in this study. Both plasmid-mediated and chromosomal HGT within and between each genetic background in the combinations outlined were performed.