Here we describe the first application of transient gene silencing in Saprolegnia parasitica, a pathogenic oomycete that infects a wide range of fish, amphibians, and crustaceans. A gene encoding a putative tyrosinase from S. parasitica, SpTyr, was selected to investigate the suitability of RNA-interference (RNAi) to functionally characterize genes of this economically important pathogen. Tyros...

Haemato-biochemical studies in rainbow trout infected with Saprolegnia were carried out under temperate climatic conditions of Kashmir valley to find out the variation in blood parameters. The trial was carried out on 405 cultured rainbow trout fish ranging in length from 47.8 to 69.8 cm and in weight from 1300 to 1920 g. The same experiment was carried out on 2,70000.00 trout fish eggs from No...

In rapidly growing hyphae of Saprolegnia ferax, all nuclei contain arrays of kinetochore microtubules, which suggests that the nuclei are all in various phases of mitosis, with no apparent interphase. In prophase nuclei, kinetochore microtubules form a single, hemispherical array adjacent to the centrioles. This array separates into two similar arrays after centriole replication. The two arrays...

The secondary cysts of the fish pathogen oomycete Saprolegnia parasitica possess bundles of long hooked hairs that are characteristic to this economically important pathogenic species. Few studies have been carried out on elucidating their specific role in the S. parasitica life cycle and the role they may have in the infection process. We show here their function by employing several strategie...

Oomycetes are a family of eukaryotic microbes that superficially resemble fungi, but which are phylogenetically distinct from them. These organisms cause major global economic losses to agriculture and fisheries, with representative pathogens being Phytophthora infestans, the cause of late potato blight and Saprolegnia diclina, the instigator of "cotton molds" in fish. As in all eukaryotes, cyt...