Mycelial Growth and Morphology Analysis

Both the WT and mutant strains were inoculated in three media—PDA, TG, and TYGA—and the colony diameters were recorded for a comparison of the mycelial growth rates at 24 h intervals [34 (link)]. The mycelia were collected from the PDA culture for 5 days at 28 °C; 20 μg/mL calcofluor white (CFW, Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA) was used for the staining to observe the mycelial morphology and septa. The mycelia were stained with 20 μg/mL 4’,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI, Sigma, St. Louis, MO, USA) for 15 min and observed using inverted fluorescence microscopy (Carl Zeiss, Oberkochen, Germany) [35 (link)]; 50 photos were randomly taken for cell nucleus counting.