Filamentous fungal genomes contain two distantly related cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase A catalytic subunits (PKAs), but only one PKA is found to play a principal role. In Aspergillus nidulans, PkaA is the primary PKA that positively functions in vegetative growth and spore germination but negatively controls asexual sporulation and production of the mycotoxin sterigmatocystin. In this rep...

Upon removal of nutrients, the amoebae of the cellular slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum differentiate into dormant spores which survive starvation stress. In this study, we demonstrate that half of the actin molecules in the spores are tyrosine-phosphorylated. The phosphorylated actin is distributed around immobile crenate mitochondria and vesicles, as well as in the cytoplasm of the spores....

A crude Sohxlet extract from leaves of Syzygium jambos was sequentially fractionated using a silica gel flash column. A bioassay based on the numbers of urediniospores of Puccinia psidii that germinated in 2% water agar detected an active stimulant of germination when the fraction eluted with 100% n-hexane was used. The active fraction induced up to 88% increase in germination when added to a s...

Nitric oxide (NO) and reactive oxygen species (ROS) function as signaling molecules in a number of critical signal transduction pathways in plants, including plant biotic interactions. In addition to the role of plant-derived NO and ROS in plant resistance, which has been well documented, pathogen-produced NO and ROS have recently emerged as important players in fungal development and pathogene...

Phytoterpenoid isolated from Artabotrytis odoratissimus inhibited spore germination of some plant pathogenic as well as saprophytic fungi e.g. Alternaria alternata, A. solani, Cercospora sp., Curvularia maculans, C. pennisetti, Fusarium udum, Helminthosporium echinochlova, H. frumentacie, H. penniseti and Ustilago cynodontis. In Curvularia maculans and H. frumentacie, spore germination was comp...

Dense masses of spores of Dictyostelium mucoroides var. stoloniferum have the ability to germinate and aggregate rapidly in the absence of food. This is made possible by the presence of a dominant, self-produced spore germination activator. The germination-aggregation cycle can be repeated in as many as six successive generations. In each generation the spore size is reduced so that ultimately ...

Previous work indicated that Clostridium perfringens gerKA gerKC spores germinate significantly, suggesting that gerKB also has a role in C. perfringens spore germination. We now find that (i) gerKB was expressed only during sporulation, likely in the forespore; (ii) gerKB spores germinated like wild-type spores with nonnutrient germinants and with high concentrations of nutrients but more slow...

During the last 10 years the subject of bacterial spore germination has been intensively investigated. In most of these studies it has been found that bacterial spores are capable of germination under conditions which do not permit the germinated form to survive (Schmidt, 1955; Stedman, 1956). Hills (1949) pointed out that a distinction must be drawn between the requirements for germination and...

The genome of the pathogen Clostridium perfringens encodes two proteins, GerO and GerQ, homologous to monovalent cation transporters suggested to have roles in the germination of spores of some Bacillus species. GerO and GerQ were able to transport monovalent cations (K(+) and/or Na(+)) in Escherichia coli, and gerO and gerQ were expressed only in the mother cell compartment during C. perfringe...