Pls1 tetraspanins were shown for some pathogenic fungi to be essential for appressorium-mediated penetration into their host plants. We show here that Podospora anserina, a saprobic fungus lacking appressorium, contains PaPls1, a gene orthologous to known PLS1 genes. Inactivation of PaPls1 demonstrates that this gene is specifically required for the germination of ascospores in P. anserina. The...

Pseudomonas aeruginosa 7NSK2 induces resistance in dicots through a synergistic interaction of the phenazine pyocyanin and the salicylic acid-derivative pyochelin. Root inoculation of the monocot model rice with 7NSK2 partially protected leaves against blast disease (Magnaporthe grisea) but failed to consistently reduce sheath blight (Rhizoctonia solani). Only mutations interfering with pyocyan...

A culture strain of the benthic unicellular red alga Dixoniella grisea was investigated under different stress conditions. The effects of salinity, temperature and irradiance on growth rates were examined in two-factorial experiments and the accumulation of mannitol in response to increasing salinity investigated. The strain grows in a broad salinity range, from brackish water to twice seawater...

A new species from Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil, Dasyhelea eloyi Díaz & Ronderos, is described, illustrated and photomicrograph as larva, pupa and male and female adults based on examination with binocular and scanning electron microscopes. This new species, a typical member of the Dasyhelea grisea species group, is compared with the most similar congeners D. necrophila Spinelli & Rodriguez and the...

Eumycetoma is a chronic fungal infection characterised by large subcutaneous masses and the presence of sinuses discharging coloured grains. The causative agents of black-grain eumycetoma mostly belong to the orders Sordariales and Pleosporales. The aim of the present study was to clarify the phylogeny and taxonomy of pleosporalean agents, viz. Madurella grisea, Medicopsis romeroi (syn.: Pyreno...

The rice blast fungus Magnaporthe grisea infects its host by forming a specialized infection structure, the appressorium, on the plant leaf. The enormous turgor pressure generated within the appressorium drives the emerging penetration peg forcefully through the plant cuticle. Hitherto, the involvement of cutinase(s) in this process has remained unproven. We identified a specific M. grisea cuti...

Magnaporthe grisea, also identified as rice blast fungus, rotten rice neck, rice seedling blight, oval leaf spot of graminea, blast of rice [1], pitting disease, ryegrass blast, and Johnson spot is a plant-pathogenic fungus that causes a serious disease affecting rice [2]. Rice blast, caused by Magnaporthe grisea, is considered the most important disease of rice worldwide [3] because of its ext...

The thermophilic fungus Humicola grisea var. thermoidea secretes extracellular xylanase when grown on solid and in liquid media containing wheat bran and banana plant residue as substrates, respectively. At 55oC, xylanase from the culture filtrate of H. grisea var. thermoidea grown on banana stalk retained 50% of its activity after 28 h of incubation. A xylanase (X2) was isolated from solid sta...

We isolated and sequenced both genomic DNA and cDNA clones, which encoded a putative GT1-like protein with 385 amino acids, from cultivated rice (Oryza sativa ssp. indica). This protein shows significant amino acid sequence similarities with trihelix DNA-binding GT-1a/B2F and GT-1 factors that were identified in dicot plants. Northern blotting analysis indicated that the transcript of the rice ...