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Figure 2
Role of AfLkhA in sexual development. (A) Morphology of the sexual fruiting body, cleistothecium, in WT, ?AflkhA, and C?AflkhA strains. Mycelial balls were moved to oatmeal agar and incubated at 30°C for 14 days under dark conditions to induce sexual development. Arrow indicates a cloud of ascospores sprayed from cleistothecium. (B) Quantification of cleistothecia production (n = 5). Asterisk represents significant differences: *P < 0.05, ***P < 0.001. (C) Morphology of ascospores. Cleistothecium was ruptured on a glass slide to observe ascospores. (D) Relative expression patterns of steA, veA and vosA. Total RNA was extracted from cleistothecia. RT-qPCR analysis was performed using 18S rRNA gene as an internal control. The x-axis shows a list of genes. The y-axis indicate the relative mRNA abundance of the genes in ?AflkhA strain compared to WT. The values were transformed and presented as Log10. ***P < 0.001.