Fig. 4: Effect of caspofungin on water accessibility, biopolymer rigidity, and surface roughness.
a Hydration map of 3-day-old A. fumigatus without (top) and with (bottom) caspofungin treatment. This intensity map plotted the ratios (S/S0) of peak intensities from the water-edited spectrum (S) detecting hydrated molecules, relative to those from the control spectrum (S0) representing equilibrium conditions. b Relative intensities (S/S0) of different carbon sites indicating the extent of water association of cell wall polysaccharides. Data are shown for apo and drug-treated samples: β-1,3-glucan (B; n = 25, 19), chitin (Ch; n = 25, 25), β-1,4-glucose units (G; n = 3, 3), and three subtypes of α-1,3-glucan (Aa, n = 16, 15; Ab, n = 4, 4; Ac, n = 6, 6). c 13C-T1 relaxation time constants for different carbon sites in 3-day-old A. fumigatus samples. Data are shown for carbohydrates in both apo and drug-treated samples: B (n = 20, 15), Ch (n = 20, 20), G (n = 7, 7), Aa, (n = 12, 8), Ab (n = 2, 2), and Ac (n = 6, 6). Data in panels b and c are presented as mean ± s.e., with data points superimposed on the bar diagram. d Lateral surface roughness profiles and corresponding AFM images of 3-day-old A. fumigatus without (apo, left) and with (+CAS, right) caspofungin exposure, showing difference in the average roughness (Ra). The white dashed lines denote the locations from which representative roughness profiles were derived. e Surface roughness determined by analyzing the lateral roughness profiles from five AFM images for both apo and drug-treated samples. Data are mean ± s.e. with n = 5 for apo and caspofungin-treated samples. The statistically significant differences (α = 0.02) were identified by unpaired Student t-test. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.
