COLONY OF THE FUNGUS <i>Aspergillus oryzae</i> AND SELF-AFFINE FRACTAL GEOMETRY OF GROWTH FRONTS

Abstract

A variety of colony shapes of the fungus Aspergillus oryzae under varying environmental conditions such as the nutrient concentration, medium stiffness and incubation temperature are obtained, ranging from a homogeneous Eden-like to a ramified DLA-like pattern. The roughness σ(l, h) of the growth front of the band-shaped colony, where h is the mean front height within l of the horizontal range, satisfies the self-affine fractal relation under favorable environmental conditions. In the most favorable condition of our experiments, its characteristic exponent is found to be a little larger than that of the 2-dimensional Eden model.