Fungal pre-cultures were inoculated from glycerol stocks and grown on malt extract agar (ROTH, Germany) at 24 °C for two weeks. For liquid main cultures, 250-mL shake flasks containing 50mL liquid medium were inoculated with a half-overgrown pre-culture plate and cultivated at 24°C and 100rpm for four weeks. Soybean meal-based medium (SG) consisted of soybean meal (30 g L–1) (Hensel Voll-Soja; Walther Schoenenberger Pflanzensaftwerk GmbH & Co. KG, Germany) and glucose (40 g L–1). Soy peptone- based medium (GYP) contained soy peptone (48 g L–1), glucose (42 g L–1) and yeast extract (4.5 g L–1).For agar plate main cultures, a 5 ·5 mm overgrown agar slice, which corresponded approximately to a volume of 75 mm3, was cut and transferred to a fresh agar plate containing soybean meal (30 g L–1) and agar-agar (20 g L–1). Plates were incubated at 24 °C for three weeks.