Editing Conidium (section)

===Conidia germination===

A conidium may form [[germ tube]]s (germination tubes) and/or [[conidial anastomosis tubes]] (CATs) in specific conditions. These two are some of the specialized hyphae that are formed by fungal conidia. The germ tubes will grow to form the hyphae and fungal [[mycelia]]. The conidial anastomosis tubes are morphologically and physiologically distinct from germ tubes. After conidia are induced to form conidial anastomosis tubes, they grow homing toward each other, and they fuse. Once fusion happens, the nuclei can pass through fused CATs. These are events of fungal vegetative growth and not sexual reproduction. Fusion between these cells seems to be important for some fungi during early stages of colony establishment. The production of these cells has been suggested to occur in 73 different species of fungi.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1038/ng1839|pmid=16832356|title=Emergence of a new disease as a result of interspecific virulence gene transfer|journal=Nature Genetics|volume=38|issue=8|pages=953–6|year=2006|last1=Friesen|first1=Timothy L|last2=Stukenbrock|first2=Eva H|last3=Liu|first3=Zhaohui|last4=Meinhardt|first4=Steven|last5=Ling|first5=Hua|last6=Faris|first6=Justin D|last7=Rasmussen|first7=Jack B|last8=Solomon|first8=Peter S|last9=McDonald|first9=Bruce A|last10=Oliver|first10=Richard P|s2cid=6349264}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1016/j.femsle.2005.06.048|pmid=16040203|title=Conidial anastomosis tubes in filamentous fungi|journal=FEMS Microbiology Letters|volume=249|issue=2|pages=191–8|year=2005|last1=Gabriela Roca|first1=M.|last2=Read|first2=Nick D.|last3=Wheals|first3=Alan E.|doi-access=free}}</ref>