Opportunistic fungal infections including candidiasis have increased dramatically in recent years. Most medically important fungi are Candida species. Rapid identification of Candida isolates to the species level in the clinical laboratory is necessary for more rapid and effective antifungal therapy and to facilitate hospital infection control measures. Conventional morphological methods for id...

The transition from vegetative growth to multicellular development represents an evolutionary hallmark linked to an oxidative stress signal and controlled protein degradation. We identified the Sem1 proteasome subunit, which connects stress response and cellular differentiation. The sem1 gene encodes the fungal counterpart of the human Sem1 proteasome lid subunit and is essential for fungal cel...

Aspartate-semialdehyde dehydrogenase (ASADH) functions at a critical junction in the aspartate biosynthetic pathway and represents a validated target for antimicrobial drug design. This enzyme catalyzes the NADPH-dependent reductive dephosphorylation of β-aspartyl phosphate to produce the key intermediate aspartate semialdehyde. The absence of this entire pathway in humans and other mammals wil...

Fungi and fungal community play important roles in the soil ecosystem, and the diversity of fungal community could act as natural antagonists of various plant pathogens. Biological control is a promising method to protect plants as chemical pesticides may cause environment pollution. Pseudomonas fluorescens 2P24 had strong inhibitory on Rastonia solanacearum, Fusarium oxysporum and Rhizoctonia ...

BACKGROUND Fungal sinusitis is increasing worldwide in the past two decades. It is divided into two types including invasive and noninvasive. Noninvasive types contain allergic fungal sinusitis (AFS) and fungus ball. AFS is a hypersensitivity reaction to fungal allergens in the mucosa of the sinonasal tract in atopic individuals. The fungus ball is a different type of noninvasive fungal rhinosi...

A fungal strain of Aspergillus oryzae was used for the production of alpha amylase by solid state fermentation from agro-industrial waste. Enzyme production was growth associated and maximum activity (8.23 U/ml) were obtained after 120h when incubated at 30°C on wheat bran with initial moisture content 60%; initial medium pH = 5 . Enzyme activity increased when the solid medium was supplemented...

The effect of a number of physiological variables on the secretion of polysaccharide-degrading enzymes by culture-grown Colletotrichum lindemuthianum (Saccardo and Magnus) Scribner was determined. The number of spores used to inoculate cultures grown on isolated bean hypocotyl cell walls affects the time after inoculation at which enzyme secretion occurs, but has no significant effect on the ma...

The fungal vacuole is a prominent organelle that functions as a storage site for amino acids, Ca, storage carbohydrates, inorganic phosphate and numerous hydrolases (Fig. 1) (Klionsky et al. 1990). A hallmark of fungal vacuoles is that they are acidic compartments involved in the turnover of cellular macromolecules. In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the hydrolase activities in the vacuole ...

With increasingly large immunocompromised populations around the world, opportunistic fungal pathogens such as Cryptococcus neoformans are a growing cause of morbidity and mortality. To combat the paucity of antifungal compounds, new drug targets must be investigated. Adenylosuccinate synthetase is a crucial enzyme in the ATP de novo biosynthetic pathway, catalyzing the formation of adenylosucc...

Telomeres are genomic structures found at the ends of linear chromosomes that protect cells by ensuring the complete transmission of genetic information to future generations. As the cell replicates, the telomeres will naturally shorten, allowing them to be used as a biological clock. The enzyme telomerase, a complex molecule made of a protein (TERT) and an RNA component (TR), regulates telomer...