The insect pathogens Beauveria bassiana, Metarhizium anisopliae and Paecilomyces farinosus can be effective biocontrol agents when relative humidity (RH) is close to 100%. At reduced water availability, germination of propagules, and therefore host infection, cannot occur. Cultures of B. bassiana, M. anisopliae and P. farinosus were grown under different conditions to obtain conidia with a modi...

The germ line of the nematode C. elegans provides a paradigm to study essential developmental concepts like stem cell differentiation and apoptosis. Here, we have created a computational model encompassing these developmental landmarks and the resulting movement of germ cells along the gonadal tube. We have used a technique based on molecular dynamics (MD) to model the physical movement of cell...

Germ-free rodents have no microorganisms living in or on them, allowing researchers to specifically control an animal's microbiota through the direct inoculation of bacteria of interest. This strategy has been widely used to decipher host-microbe interactions as well as the role of microorganisms in both (i) the development and function of the gut barrier (mainly the intestinal epithelium) and ...

We have used the fluorescent dye FM4-64 as a tracer to demonstrate bulk membrane internalization (endocytosis) and redistribution of the dye within the cytoplasm of the germ tube of the rust fungus Uromyces fabae. Staining of the hyphal membrane was detected 4 s after application of FM4-64 and reached a maximum after 1 min. The highest fluorescence intensity occurred in the apex. Subsequently, ...

Most models for fungal growth have proposed a directional traffic of secretory vesicles to the hyphal apex, where they temporarily aggregate at the Spitzenkörper before they fuse with the plasma membrane (PM). The PM H(+)-translocating ATPase (PMA-1) is delivered via the classical secretory pathway (endoplasmic reticulum [ER] to Golgi) to the cell surface, where it pumps H(+) out of the cell, g...

The human fungal pathogen Candida albicans can switch between yeast, pseudohyphal, and hyphal morphologies. To investigate whether the distinctive characteristics of hyphae are due to increased activity of the Cdc42 GTPase, strains lacking negative regulators of Cdc42 were constructed. Unexpectedly, the deletion of the Cdc42 Rho guanine dissociation inhibitor RDI1 resulted in reduced rather tha...

Siderophore biosynthesis by the highly lethal mould Aspergillus fumigatus is essential for virulence, but non-existent in humans, presenting a rare opportunity to strategize therapeutically against this pathogen. We have previously demonstrated that A. fumigatus excretes fusarinine C and triacetylfusarinine C to capture extracellular iron, and uses ferricrocin for hyphal iron storage. Here, we ...

BACKGROUND Introduction of the RNA interference (RNAi) machinery has guided the researchers to discover the function of essential vital or virulence factor genes in the microorganisms such as fungi. In the filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans, the gene sidB plays an essential role in septation, conidiation and vegetative hyphal growth. In the present study, we benefited from the RNAi strateg...

Inherited loss-of-function mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 and other tumor suppressor genes predispose to ovarian carcinomas, but the overall burden of disease due to inherited mutations is not known. Using targeted capture and massively parallel genomic sequencing, we screened for germ-line mutations in 21 tumor suppressor genes in genomic DNA from women with primary ovarian, peritoneal, or fallo...

This paper reports the effect of phenylbut-3-en-2-one, of its analogues, bearing 3-nitro, 4-nitro, 4-chloro- and 4-dimethylamino substituents at the phenyl moiety, and of the hydrazide, phenylhydrazide and oxime of 4-nitrophenylbut-3-en-2-one on the growth and germ-tube formation of Candida spp., as well as their ability to interact with ergosterol in water/dimethylformamide (DMF) solution and ...