Effects of voriconazole combined with micafungin against 101 isolates of Candida spp. and 100 isolates of filamentous fungi have been evaluated by in vitro checkerboard analysis. The combination was indifferent for 97% of the Candida isolates and synergistic for 64% of the filamentous fungi (79% for Aspergillus fumigatus).

None (In the course of studies about fungi associated with pistachio (Pistacia vera L.) die-back disease in the Ghaen region of south Khorasan (Iran), one species of Geosmithia was found. The isolates were identified as Geosmithia lavendula (Raper & Fennel I) Pitt based on its morphological and molecular properties. The genus Geosmithia (Ascomycota: Hypocreales) is belonging to mitosporic filame...

PURPOSE To analyze the frequency and the etiology of mycotic infectious eye diseases diagnosed by culture at the Ocular Diseases Laboratory of the Federal University of São Paulo (LOFT-UNIFESP), São Paulo, SP, Brazil, and the factors associated with fungal keratitis. METHODS We retrospectively analyzed the 14,391 laboratory requests regarding infectious eye diseases between 1975 and May 2003....

Fitness is a common currency in comparative biology. Without data on fitness, hypotheses about the adaptive significance of phenotypes or basic mechanisms of evolution, for example natural selection, remain speculative. Experiments with fungi can address questions specific to fungi or questions with a broader significance. Fungi can challenge the generality of fundamental evolutionary principle...

Mating type genes regulate sexual compatibility and sexual reproduction in fungi. This review focuses on recent molecular analyses of well-characterized mating systems from representative ascomycete (Neurospora crassa, Podospora anserina) and basidiomycete (Ustilago maydis, Coprinus cinereus, Schizophyllum commune) fungi. These mating systems include many conserved components, such as gene regu...

Research on cell communication and differentiation in filamentous fungi has provided a number of novel insights into chemoattractive mechanisms in recent years. Still, identification of specific chemoattractant molecules, cognate receptors and downstream signaling pathways is strongly biased towards those involved in mating; probably due to the relative ease of functional genomic comparison to ...

Among the filamentous fungi the rate of the endogenous respiration, which often is a useful measure of endogenous metabolism, usually is high as compared to the total respiration in the presence of exogenous substrates. This feature is not limited to the fungi alone and may be found under certain conditions in bacteria (Dawes and Holms, 1958) and in animal tissues as well (Allen et al., 1955). ...