Conidial Morphology and Cell Wall Analysis

To examine the morphology of the conidial heads, PDA medium was inoculated with spores and incubated at 37°C for 24 h. The samples were then stained with Fluorescent Brightener 28 (Sigma, USA) and observed using the BX53 fluorescence microscope (Olympus, Japan). Additionally, potato dextrose broth (PDB) medium was inoculated with spores (1 × 10⁵ CFU) and incubated at 37°C for 12 h. The samples were then stained with Fluorescent Brightener 28 and observed using the IX71 fluorescence microscope (Olympus). The samples for transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were prepared following the method described by Weichert et al. (38 (link)). ImageJ was used to measure the thickness of cell wall. The length of three random points on the cell wall was measured, and the average of these values was calculated as a result of cell wall thickness (39 (link)).