ACID-PHOSPHATASE POSITIONAL CORRELATIONS IN SOLID-SURFACE FUNGAL CULTIVATION - A FRACTAL INTERPRETATION OF BIOCHEMICAL DIFFERENTIATION

Colour image analysis was used to measure the positional correlation between acid phosphatase intracellular concentration and hyphal cellular differentiation which leads to concentric circular zonal activity patterns. Acid phosphatase is strongly implicated in the biochemical control of hyphal branching, and exo-enzyme secretion, such as laccase in fungi,occurs predominately via the hyphal tips. Different concentrations of an organic dye were used to effect substrate induction of the enzyme response, which was shown to be statistically correlated according to a fractal power law (H similar to 0.39). A self-organized critical state for the molecular responsivity of dissipative enzyme expression is hypothesized as an efficient mechanism for hyphal adaptation, also accounting for the underlying biophysics of the observed pattern formations. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.