The cytotoxicity of three Stenocarpella maydis metabolites (diplodiatoxin, dipmatol and diplonine) was investigated on Neuro-2a, CHO-K1 and MDBK cell lines. Diplodiatoxin was the most cytotoxic followed by dipmatol. Conversely, diplonine was not cytotoxic. Diplodiatoxin and dipmatol affected mitochondrial succinate dehydrogenase (MTT assay) and the overall viability of cells as assessed in real...

234 A mutant form of the succinate dehydrogenase iron-sulphur protein subunit confers resistance to carboxin in the maize smut pathogen Ustilago maydis John P. R. Keon, P. L. Elaine Broomfield, Gordon A. White* and John A. Hargreaves Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Bristol, A.F.R.C. Institute of Arable Crops Research, Long Ashton Research Station, Bristol BSI 8 9AF, U.K. and ...

A glycoprotein which binds to nucleic acids has now been purified from Ustilago maydis until free from detectable deoxyribonuclease activity. It binds to a variety of substrates and in doing so, makes them soluble in dilute trichloroacetic acid. Physical studies suggest that it forms a variety of aggregates under low ionic strength, but at high ionic strength the monomer consists of a single po...

The need exists to create the auxotrophic mutants for basidiomycete Ustilago maydis to allow selection of gene transformants in minimal growth media. The ADE2 gene was identified by homology with Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Adenine-requiring auxotrophic mutants were effectively created by homologous recombination in protoplasts using a standard plasmid containing the ADE2 locus interrupted by a p...