BACKGROUND Fleece rot (FR) and body-strike of Merino sheep by the sheep blowfly Lucilia cuprina are major problems for the Australian wool industry, causing significant losses as a result of increased management costs coupled with reduced wool productivity and quality. In addition to direct effects on fleece quality, fleece rot is a major predisposing factor to blowfly strike on the body of she...

Objective: Fusarium diseases that cause grain mold and stalk rot of millet are the most important diseases, of these crops in Iran. Fusarium can cause stalk rots, ear rots, and grain mold, resulting in serious production losses in millet, and produce mycotoxins that are harmful to both humans and domesticated animals.  Methods: A total of 23 Fusarium isolates were rec...

BACKGROUND The genome of Schizophyllum commune encodes a diverse repertoire of degradative enzymes for plant cell wall breakdown. Recent comparative genomics study suggests that this wood decayer likely has a mode of biodegradation distinct from the well-established white-rot/brown-rot models. However, much about the extracellular enzyme system secreted by S. commune during lignocellulose decon...

The rod-like, contractile stalk of the single-celled peritrich Vorticella Convalleria can collapse into a tightly coiled helix in less than 1/60 second, a rate ~1000 times its cell body size per second. The contractile stalk (25um-300um in length, ~ 4um diameter) consists of several membranes stiffened by extracellular fibers and helical assembly of larger protein bundles, known as batonets, su...

The potential of fungal pretreatment to improve fermentable sugar yields from wheat straw or Miscanthus was investigated. We assessed 63 fungal strains including 53 white-rot and 10 brown-rot fungi belonging to the Basidiomycota phylum in an original 12 day small-scale solid-state fermentation (SSF) experiment using 24-well plates. This method offers the convenience of one-pot processing of sam...

Rubber wood (Hevea brasiliensis) was esterfied with phenylisothiocyanate, and dimensional stability, decay resistance, and photo stability of the modified wood was assessed. The chemically modified wood was characterized by FTIR and CP/MAS C NMR spectroscopy. Unmodified and modified samples were exposed to a brown rot (Polyporus meliae) and a white rot (Coriolus versicolor) fungus for 12 weeks....

Laccase has huge potential application in all aspects of biotechnology due to the ability laccase oxidize a wide range phenolic and non-phenolic compounds. The future success such applications requires large amounts with low costs. White-rot fungi are important groups production. In this study, three white-rot fungi, Phlebia acerina Han 618, Trametes hirsuta 726, Coriolopsis trogii 751, isolate...

In Australia both Fusarium graminearum and F. pseudograminearum cause head blight and crown rot of wheat and this work compares the aetiology and diversity between the two species. A total of 199 isolates of F. pseudograminearum and 118 isolates of F. graminearum obtained from wheat grown in Queensland and northern New South Wales and were identified using published species-specific PCR assays....