**2.7 RNA isolation and Northern blot analysis**

Total RNA was extracted from mycelia after varying incubation periods under MnP- and Lcc- induced conditions using TRIzol Reagent (Invitrogen, CA). cDNA was synthesized from total RNA using an RNA PCR Kit Ver.3.0 (Takara Bio, Japan), and amplified using the primer set LeMnP2En5f (5'-TCCGACAGTGTCAATGACCTCGCTC) and LeMnP2En13r (5'**-** GTCAGTGGTGAGATTTGGGAAGGGC), which were designed based on the highly conserved *lemnp2* region (DDBJ Acc. No. AB306944; Sakamoto et al., 2009). A fragment measuring approximately 700 bp was then extracted from the 1% agarose−formaldehyde gel, purified, and sequenced using an ABI Prism 3100-*Avant* Genetic Analyzer (Applied Biosystems, CA) according to the manufacturer's instructions. Fragments with sequences matching *lemnp2* were then labeled using a PCR-based digoxigenin (DIG)-dUTP labeling kit (PCR DIG Probe Synthesis Kit, Roche Diagnostics) according to the manufacturer's instructions. The resulting DIG-labeled probe, *lemnp2*N, was then used for Northern hybridization following blotting of 10 μg of total RNA onto a Hybond-N+ membrane (GE Healthcare, Switzerland) using an established protocol (Sambrook et al., 1989).
