H. F. Krause, C. R. Vane, S. Datz, P. Grafström, H. Knudsen, U. Mikkelsen, C. Scheidenberger, R. H. Schuch, and Z. Vilakazi Physics Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, P.O. Box 2008, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831-6377 CERN SPS/SL Division, CH-1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland Institute of Physics, Aarhus University, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung mbh, Planckstrasse ...

The grass smuts comprise a speciose group of biotrophic plant parasites, so-called Ustilaginaceae, which are specifically adapted to hosts of sweet grasses, the Poaceae family. Mating takes a central role in their life cycle, as it initiates parasitism by a morphological and physiological transition from saprobic yeast cells to pathogenic filaments. As in other fungi, sexual identity is determi...

Reproductive success of males is thought to depend mainly on access to receptive females, and therefore, males compete for females (Darwin 1859; Andersson 1994). In social species, evidence for this competition is found in the distribution of males among groups containing females (Eberle & Kappeler 2002), in male–male interactions and in their manipulation of females to increase mating opportun...

Crude extracts of various Agapanthus africanus plant parts were screened in vitro against eight economically important plant pathogenic fungi. Radial mycelial growth was inhibited significantly (Po0.05) in five test organisms, while Pythium ultimum, and to a lesser extent Fusarium oxysporum and Alternaria alternata, showed a degree of tolerance. Subsequently, these crude extracts were tested in...

Smut fungi are well-suited to investigate the ecology and evolution of plant pathogens, as they are strictly biotrophic, yet cultivable on media. Here we report the genome sequence of Melanopsichium pennsylvanicum, closely related to Ustilago maydis and other Poaceae-infecting smuts, but parasitic to a dicot plant. To explore the evolutionary patterns resulting from host adaptation after this h...