Growth and Development of Isolated Tips of Neurospora crassa Hyphae in a Sorbitol-Containing Medium

It is known that the replacement of easily utilizable glucose with sorbitol in a medium activates a large number of repressed genes and metabolic changes in Neurospora crassa, which manifest themselves at the cellular level in a considerable vacuolization of the cytoplasm. The study of the morphological parameters and growth characteristics of isolated apical fragments of N. crassa hyphae showed that, in sorbitol-containing medium, the isolation from the parent mycelium causes the same disturbances in the coordination of elongation, branching, and septation as those described by us earlier for the glucose-containing medium. The metabolic changes caused by the carbon source replacement do not affect the hyphal-segment size, the distance from the growth point to the first septum, and the morphology and distribution of nuclei.