Aspergillus fumigatus is a versatile fungus able to successfully exploit diverse environments from mammalian lungs to agricultural waste products. Among its many fitness attributes are dozens of genetic loci containing biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) producing bioactive small molecules (often referred to as secondary metabolites or natural products) that provide growth advantages to the fungu...

Sex differences occur in most species and affect a variety of biological traits including morphology, behavior, and life history. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans exists as a population of self-fertile hermaphrodites with occasional males, which differ anatomically and behaviorally from hermaphrodites. Here we show that male C. elegans also differ from hermaphrodites in their susceptibility ...

Aspergillus fumigatus causes serious, life-threatening human infection, and is one of the most important pathogenic fungi. Little is known, however, about its mechanism of infection or its virulence factors. To learn about its virulence factors, the effect of the culture filtrate of A. fumigatus on macrophages was studied. When cocultured with A. fumigatus in 96-well microplates, murine periton...

Abstract Transcription factors (TFs) play critical roles in the control of development and pathogenicity phytopathogens by directly or indirectly regulating expression downstream genes. Here, we identified characterized a zinc finger TF UvMsn2 Ustilaginoidea virens , homolog MoMsn2 from rice blast fungus. Heterogenous complementation assay revealed that fully restored defects ?Momsn2 mutant veg...

Fruit diseases brought on by fungus infestation leads to postharvest losses of fresh fruit. Approximately 30% harvested fruits do not reach consumers’ plates due losses. Fungal pathogens play a substantial part in those losses, as they cause the majority fruit rots and consumer complaints. Understanding fungal pathogenic processes control measures is crucial for developing disease prevention tr...