Fungal Hyphae as Distributed Vapor Sinks

Abstract

Hygroscopic surfaces act as local vapor sinks that reshape the condensation field around them, but whether distributed biological structures do the same has not been investigated. We have established that hyphae of fungal colonies functionally behave as vapor sinks, creating a dry region of width{delta} around themselves when placed on a cooled substrate. In addition, the radial distribution of droplet sizes steepens during condensation, and the rate at which droplets evaporate locally after chamber drying increases. In order to quantify this behavior, we employed a combination of time-resolved imaging and survival analysis to determine how long individual droplets persist on the surface surrounding the colony. These data were used to derive three quantitative measures of the vapor-sink effect. Each measure was found to be directly proportional to the vapor-sink strength of the substrate, as calibrated against NaCl-agar hydrogels of known water activity (LOOCV RMSE = 0.031 for recovered aw). These findings were consistent across three fungal genera (35 experiments), and all species fell along calibration lines defined by the hydrogel standards. This result is consistent with a diffusion-limited vapor-depletion framework. The measured genus-level{delta} ratios agreed to within 6% of predictions from structural absorbing capacity, and field measurements on Gymnosporangium-infected apple leaves were consistent with the same signatures under natural conditions. These results establish a non-contact method for inferring the material properties of thin hygroscopic biological surfaces from their condensation patterns.