Filamentous fungi produce large amounts of stress-resistant conidia that can stay dormant for a long time. Conidial germination is the first critical step to initiate growth and is triggered by favourable environ- mental conditions such as water availability and nutrients (e.g. carbon sources). How dormancy is maintained and regulated is not clear. We attempt to identify the regulators involved in controlling dormancy and germination. Considering the importance of protein kinases in environ- mental sensing and signal transduction, we screened the Aspergillus nidulans kinase deletion library for mutants capable of germinating in pure water (i.e. the absence of nutrients) and identified the yakAΔ mutant. Further characterizations of the mutant show that the YakA kinase is important for germination behaviour, conidial development, conidial stress resistance and carbon regulation.