Trade-offs play pivotal roles in the ecology and evolution of natural populations. However, trade-offs are probably not static, invariant relationships. Instead, ecological factors can shift, alter, or reverse the relationships underlying trade-offs and create critical genotype x environment (G x E) interactions. But which ecological factors alter trade-offs or create G x E interactions, and wh...

The aim of this work was to determine the differences between indoor and outdoor aeromicological composition. The aerobiological study was performed, from 15 January to 14 April 2008, using two volumetric spore traps, one placed indoors and another positioned outdoors on the roof of the Faculdade de Ciências building. A total of 23 000 spores were sampled outdoors and 15 500 spores were identif...

In our ongoing screening culture fluid extracts of Gloeoporus (Caloporus) dichrous strain 83065 inhibited the germination of Magnaporthe grisea and Fusarium graminearum spores. While isolating the active metabolites two new caloporosides, caloporoside G and caloporoside H, in addition to the known caloporoside derivatives F-16438G, caloporoside A, and 2-hydroxy-6-(16-hydroxyheptadecyl)benzoic a...

Some of the most striking and extreme consequences of rapid, long-distance aerial dispersal involve pathogens of crop plants. Long-distance dispersal of fungal spores by the wind can spread plant diseases across and even between continents and reestablish diseases in areas where host plants are seasonally absent. For such epidemics to occur, hosts that are susceptible to the same pathogen genot...

Allergy is one of the oldest maladies of mankind. Allergy which manifested itself in the form of asthma was known in ancient times. For a long time allergy could not be differentiated from other ailments with which it resembled in many respects. In this paper we study of allergenic significance of certain air borne fungi of the Lucknow atmosphere. Keyword: Allergenic significance, fungal spores...

The spores of Cladosporium Link. are often present in the air in high quantities and produce many allergenic proteins, which may lead to asthma. An aerobiological spore monitoring program can inform patients about the current spore concentration in air and help their physicians determine the spore dose that is harmful for a given individual. This makes it possible to develop optimized responses...

The formation of ice particles in the Earth's atmosphere strongly affects the properties of clouds and their impact on climate. Despite the importance of ice formation in determining the properties of clouds, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2007) was unable to assess the impact of atmospheric ice formation in their most recent report because our basic knowledge is insuffici...

Most studies of the role of biological entities as atmospheric ice-nucleating particles have focused on relatively rare supermicron particles such as bacterial cells, fungal spores and pollen grains. However, it is not clear that there are sufficient numbers of these particles in the atmosphere to strongly influence clouds. Here we show that the ice-nucleating activity of a fungus from the ubiq...

The aim of the study was to determine functional relationships between composition of air spora and meteorological factors, using multivariate statistical technique: canonical correspondence analysis (CCA). Analyses were conducted for the data collected during the 4 year (2007-2010) and, in order to show the dynamics of such relationships, for each year separately. The CCA results indicated tha...

Alates of the Formosan subterranean termite, Coptotermes formosanus Shiraki, collected after swarming in 2002 died within 48 h, and the cadavers were visibly infected with a fungus. Fungi were picked from the cadavers, transferred to media, and ultimately isolated to purity. The individual fungal cultures were then used to infect Formosan subterranean termite workers. A single fungal isolate, C...