Identifying the ecological processes that structure communities and the consequences for ecosystem function is a central goal of ecology. The recognition that fungi, bacteria, and viruses control key ecosystem functions has made microbial communities a major focus of this field. Because many ecological processes are apparent only at particular spatial or temporal scales, a complete understandin...

Human fungal infections are increasing in prevalence and acquisition of antifungal drug resistance, while our antifungal drug armamentarium remains very limited, constituting a significant public health problem. Despite the fact that prominent antifungal drugs target the fungal cell membrane, very little is known about how fungal membrane biology regulates drug-target interactions. Asymmetrical...

Filamentous fungi are a good source of hemicellulolytic enzymes for biomass degradation. Enzyme preparations were obtained as culture supernatants from 78 fungal isolates grown on wheat straw as carbon source. These enzyme preparations were utilized in the hydrolysis of insoluble wheat straw and corn fiber xylan rich fractions. Up to 14% of the carbohydrates in wheat straw and 34% of those in c...

Fig. 1. StcJrol hiosynthesis squalene to lanosterol. This enzyme has been shown to hc essential f o r fungi; Sacchurornyces cerevisiue mutants lacking this key enzyme in fact require exogenous ergosterol supplementation for growth 121. Even if these early steps in sterol biosynthesis are common to mammals and fungi, the example of the allylamines. which act on squalene epoxidase 131. shows that...

BACKGROUND The witches' broom disease is a plague caused by Moniliophthora perniciosa in the Theobroma cacao, which has been reducing the cocoa production since 1989. This issue motivated a genome project that has showing several new molecular targets, which can be developed inhibitors in order to control the plague. Among the molecular targets obtained, the UDP-N-acetylglucosamine pyrophosphor...

Thirty-five fungal strains which isolated from vegetable wastes, were screened for the use of polygalacturonic acid as the sole carbon source. Twenty-five isolates were positive for polygalacturonase activity in cup-plate assay, as evidenced by clear hydrolysation zones. The most productive strain was determined by measuring clear zones formed around colonies stained with ruthenium red.</em...

Mixtures of mycolytic enzymes from various sources release protoplasts from living fungal tissue under suitable conditions. Such enzyme mixtures obtained from Coprinus comatus (mycolase I), Physarum polycephalum (mycolase II) and Lycoperdon pyriforme (mycolase III) are of low toxicity in mammals when given parenterally and are able to cure experimental systemic fungal infections in mice when ad...

Transgenic technology has demonstrated its usefulness in weed and insect control, but this technology has yet to expand much beyond these limited, special case scenarios. Along with stringent regulations, the primary limitation preventing expansion into new areas is finding efficacious genes. Fungal pathogens are particularly difficult to control in this regard as these organisms employ many of...

trichophyton rubrum is an anthropophilic fungus causing up to 90% of chronic cases of dermatophytosis. several properties of this fungus have been investigated so far. however, a few studies were carried out in the field of molecular biology of this fungus. in the present study, we tried to identify the subunit g of its vacuolar atpase (v-atpase). pairs of 21 nt primers were designed from highl...

Climate warming could increase rates of soil organic matter turnover and nutrient mineralization, particularly in northern high-latitude ecosystems. However, the effects of increasing nutrient availability on microbial processes in these ecosystems are poorly understood. To determine how soil microbes respond to nutrient enrichment, we measured microbial biomass, extracellular enzyme activities...