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Abstract
SUMMARY: Pentachloronitrobenzene (PCNB)-sensitive and PCNB-resistant strains of Aspergillus nidulans were grown in liquid and on solid media with and without PCNB. On solid medium with PCNB, hyphae of the sensitive strain had thick walls, were shorter, branched less and had fewer nuclei per cell compared with the control. Under these conditions resistant hyphae were normal and less affected in growth parameters. In liquid medium the effect of PCNB on growth was less marked, but production of extracellular polysaccharide was decreased in the sensitive strain but not in the resistant one. The walls of resistant hyphae had a low hexosamine content compared with those of the wild-type; it increased in both by about a third in the presence of PCNB. Sodium deoxycholate had no effect on it. There was no difference in alkali-soluble material between the strains; it was decreased in both in the presence of PCNB, but more so in the sensitive than in the resistant strain. Changes in carbohydrate synthesis were a result of PCNB action on the sensitive wild-type; the resistant mutant withstood similar changes without such gross changes in morphology.
- Accepted:
- Published Online: