Fig. 6
Quantitative analysis of A. niger pellet morphology reveals that conditional expression of aplD has multiple phenotypic consequences. Shake flask cultures (Fig. 5) were quantitatively analysed using the MPD image analysis pipeline (Fig. 1). Reported are box and whisker plots for pellet morphology number (a), diameter (µm, b), area (µm2, c), solidity (d), and aspect ratio (e). Crosses depict average values. Pairwise Student‘s t tests were conducted between TC18.1 and TC18.3 relative to MA70.15 control at respective Dox concentrations. Differences between control and conditional expression mutants were highly significant under all Dox concentrations and for all parameters, with the exception of diameter of strain TC18.3 under 2 and 20 µg/mL Dox. Note that all parameters, with the exception of MN, were titratable using different Dox concentrations with statistically significant increase (diameter and area) and decrease (solidity and aspect ratio) as Dox concentrations were elevated