Fig. 5

Schematic presentation of the workflow for induced strain degeneration. A productive strain (cel  +) is cultivated on MEX plates until sporulation. The spores are used to inoculate liquid MA medium containing 1% (w/v) lactose in triplicates. Mycelium is harvested after 120 h of cultivation and spread on MEX plates for sporulation. The obtained spores and spores from the initially used (cel  +) strain are spread on plates containing MA medium with 0.5% (w/v) CMC and incubated for 72 h. The plates are stained with Congo Red. The number of colonies without a halo, i.e., (cel −) colonies, can be plotted as the percentage of the total number of colonies