We will use the ascomycete industrial workhorse A. niger, which is one of the best studied fungal species with respect to plant biomass conversion. In nature, fungal colonies can cover substantial areas in which the available carbon source composition often differs significantly. It can therefore be expected that different parts of a fungal colony adapt to the local carbon sources, rather than transporting them over long distances inside the mycelium. We aim to use a combination of transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics (at EMSL) together with enzyme assays and carbohydrate and lignin analysis (at the applicants laboratories) to obtain a detailed understanding of the level of differentiation fungal colonies display, when confronted with different carbon sources using a special growth setup. We aim to use the ascomycete industrial workhorse A. niger. The combined data will reveal how flexible the physiology of fungal colonies is and to which extent the local physiology is affected by carbon sources some distance away. It will also demonstrate how well fungi can adapt to changes in the biomass composition. The facilities of EMSL will be essential to address this complex fungal aspect, as the combination of transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics will be needed to reveal the variation in the physiology of the colony in response to the change in carbon source. This combination of facilities and expertise is not available elsewhere.