Comparison of the Cellulose-Decomposition by Plant-Pathogenic Fungi

The Decomposition of Cellulose by Soil Fungi*

Proteomics of Plant Pathogenic Fungi

Plant pathogenic fungi cause important yield losses in crops. In order to develop efficient and environmental friendly crop protection strategies, molecular studies of the fungal biological cycle, virulence factors, and interaction with its host are necessary. For that reason, several approaches have been performed using both classical genetic, cell biology, and biochemistry and the modern, hol...

Autophagy in plant pathogenic fungi.

Autophagy is a conserved cellular process that degrades cytoplasmic constituents in vacuoles. Plant pathogenic fungi develop special infection structures and/or secrete a range of enzymes to invade their plant hosts. It has been demonstrated that monitoring autophagy processes can be extremely useful in visualizing the sequence of events leading to pathogenicity of plant pathogenic fungi. In th...

Morphogenesis and mechanisms of penetration by plant pathogenic fungi.

Infection structures of phytopathogenic fungi are modified hyphae specialized for the invasion of plant tissues. Initial events are adhesion to the cuticle and directed growth of the germ tube on the plant surface. At the site of penetration, appressoria are often formed that may have melanized walls and develop high turgor pressure to support the penetration process. The penetration hypha accu...

Inhibition of human pathogenic fungi by ethnobotanically selected plant extracts.

In this study, 36 extracts derived from 29 plant species selected using an ethnobotanical approach were tested for antifungal activity against a taxonomically diverse group of 13 human pathogenic fungi. We compared the inhibitory characteristics of these plant extracts with those of the commonly used antifungals, amphotericin B and ketoconazole, and the plant-derived antifungal, berberine. Seve...