Fig. 2

Microencapsulation reduces mycelial damage. LIVE/DEAD staining of S. lividans grown in microcapsules (top row), or non-encapsulated in the absence (middle row) or presence (bottom row) of a metal coil. Mycelium stained with Syto9 (green) represents viable mycelium, while propidium iodide-stained mycelium (red) is damaged. Whereas abundant viable mycelium is visible in the encapsulated state at 48 h of growth, the non-encapsulated mycelium appears highly damaged. Note that the mycelium grown in the presence of the coil appears already damaged after 36 h. The scale bar represents 200 μm (top panel) or 100 μm (middle and bottom panel)