Fig. 4: The in vitro interaction mechanism of PCW with fungi.

a Fluorescent images of C. albicans after incubation with PCW (RhoB labeled PC, FITC labeled Lyw). C. albicans was stained by DAPI. b TEM images of C. albicans after incubation with Cu²⁺, PC, and PCW. c Fluorescent images of C. albicans stained with trypan blue after incubation with Cu²⁺, PC, and PCW. d Total carbohydrate concentration of C. albicans after incubation with Cu²⁺, PC, and PCW measured by the phenol-sulfuric acid method (n = 6 independent experiments). e TEM images of C. albicans sections after incubation with Cu²⁺, PC, and PCW. f Cu element mapping images from TEM and SEM of C. albicans after incubation with Cu²⁺, PC, and PCW. g Semi-quantitative results of Cu element from SEM mapping of C. albicans after incubation with Cu²⁺, PC, and PCW (n = 5 independent experiments). h SEM images of C. albicans after incubation with Cu²⁺, PC, and PCW. i Schematic illustration of the interaction mechanism between PCW and C. albicans. MOPS treatment was used as control. a, b, c, e, f, h showed one of three independent experiments with similar results. Data for (d, g) were presented as mean values ± SD. error bars = SD. Significance of (d, g) were calculated by one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s post hoc test. Source data were provided in Source Data file.