Fig. 4

Conidiospore germination by dmtA mutants and wild type in media with different Mn²⁺ concentrations. Liquid cultures of dmtA deletion strain, dmtA overexpressing strain and their parent strain NRRL 2270 were initiated in citric acid production medium with two different Mn²⁺ contents (5 µg L⁻¹, 100 µg L⁻¹). Samples were taken 6 h after inoculation and the germinating spores were microscopically inspected, with particular attention to germtube elongation and early germling aggregation