Inhalation of fungal spores has been shown to cause primary or secondary infection and respiratory inflammation and diseases such as allergic alveolitis, atopic asthma, and organic dust toxic syndrome, which are rarely reported in the absence of predisposing factors. Biochemical and molecular markers of inflammation were measured in rat bronchial alveolar lavage cells (> 95% macrophages) follow...

Saprophytic and corprophilous fungal flora on dung samples of different hybrid cow in Lawspet area of puducherry, India was studied by moist chamber method during 2014-15. During the isolation and identification of fungi from hybrid cow dung samples, 16 species under 7 genera of hyphomycetous fungi were isolated with 44 isolates from the dung samples. Aspergilli and penicilli were dominated amo...

OBJECTIVE To detail a case of Aspergillus terreus brain abscess in a patient undergoing treatment for malignant glioma. Central nervous system aspergillosis usually occurs in patients with hematopoietic neoplasms or post transplantation, not in those with solid tumors. Most systemic invasive mold infections are attributable to Aspergillus fumigatus or Aspergillus flavus. PATIENT AND METHODS T...

The fungi isolated from 100 samples of flue-cured tobacco from 12 markets in 2 tobacco belts comprised 11 genera, including 10 species of Aspergillus. The mean percentage per sample isolated from 62 samples of tobacco from Middle Belt markets was Alternaria, 40.6%; Aspergillus niger, 47.8%; Aspergillus repens, 38.0%; and Penicillium, 25.8%. The mean percentage per sample isolated from 38 sample...

A recent article by Palonen et al. describes the effect of butyrolactone I on the expression of a secondary metabolite biosynthesis gene cluster from Aspergillus terreus that shows similarities to fusarubin biosynthesis gene clusters from Fusarium species. The authors claim that two different types of pigments are formed in Aspergillus terreus conidia, whereby one pigment is termed a DOPA-type ...

Optimization of the fermentation conditions for chitin deacetylase (CDA) production by Penicillium oxalicum SAEM-51 was undertaken in the present study using central composite design (CCD) under submerged condition. CDA is widely employed for bio-catalytic conversion of chitin to chitosan. Chitosan is a biopolymer with immense commercial potential in diverse industrial sectors, viz. pharmaceuti...

BACKGROUND In cellulolytic fungi, induction and repression mechanisms synchronously regulate the synthesis of cellulolytic enzymes for accurate responses to carbon sources in the environment. Many proteins, particularly transcription regulatory factors involved in these processes, were identified and genetically engineered in Penicillium oxalicum and other cellulolytic fungi. Despite such great...

Record low growing degree days and suboptimal growing conditions for corn in 2009 significantly delayed corn dry down and harvest in much of Wisconsin. As a result, near optimal environmental conditions (frost before full maturity) were present in the fall of 2009 for field mold growth. Field molds indentified on corn in the fall of 2009 by the University of Wisconsin Department of Plant Pathol...

Lovastatin is a potent hypercholesterolemic drug used for lowering blood cholesterol. Lovastatin acts by competitively inhibiting the enzyme, 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase involved in the biosynthesis of cholesterol. Commercially lovastatin is produced by a variety of filamentous fungi including Penicillium species, Monascus ruber and Aspergillus terreus as a secondary metabol...

Aspergillus terreus is emerging as an etiologic agent of invasive aspergillosis in immunocompromised individuals in several medical centers in the world. Infections due to A. terreus are of concern due to its resistance to amphotericin B, in vivo and in vitro, resulting in poor response to antifungal therapy and high mortality. Herein we examined a large collection of molecularly characterized,...