Plant biomass is the major carbon source for many fungal species. Due to its complex polymeric nature, degradation of this biomass to digestible monomers requires a large range of enzyme activities. With the availability of an increasing number of fungal genomes, new insights into the diversity of fungi with respect to plant biomass degradation have been obtained. Recent progress in this area w...

The term “mycorrhiza” was coined by A. B. Frank, a scientist in Germany, more than 100 years ago. It literally means fungus-root, and describes the mutualistic association existing between a group of soil fungi and higher plants. The association is based on the plant component providing carbohydrates and other essential organic compounds to the fungi. In return, the fungal component, which colo...

Plant pathogenic fungi cause important yield losses in crops. In order to develop efficient and environmental friendly crop protection strategies, molecular studies of the fungal biological cycle, virulence factors, and interaction with its host are necessary. For that reason, several approaches have been performed using both classical genetic, cell biology, and biochemistry and the modern, hol...

Inhibitory effects of more than 300 analogues of griseofulvin against six dermatophytic fungi and eight plant pathogenic fungi were determined in an investigation of relations between chemical structure and biological activity. The influence of chemical structure on physical properties of the analogues appeared dominant, but optimum requirements for in vitro performance were somewhat different ...

Soils in terrestrial ecosystems store more carbon (C) than plants and the atmosphere combined, and ecosystems’ C dynamics are strongly dependent of nitrogen (N) availability. Moreover, plant production in boreal ecosystems is often limited by low N availability, and N retention in soils is a major constraint on N recirculation to plants. Soil fungi strongly influence C and N interactions in bor...

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are mainly thought to facilitate phosphorus uptake in plants, but they can also perform several other functions that are equally beneficial. Our recent study sheds light on the factors determining one such function, enhanced plant protection from root pathogens. Root infection by the fungal pathogen Fusarium oxysporum was determined by both plant susceptibility...

New findings challenge the traditional view of the plant cell wall as passive structural barrier to invasion by fungal microorganisms. A surveillance system for cell wall integrity appears to sense perturbation of the cell wall structure upon fungal attack and is interconnected with known plant defence signalling pathways. Biotrophic fungi might manipulate this surveillance system for the estab...

SUMMARY Basidiomycete fungi subsist on various types of plant material in diverse environments, from living and dead trees and forest litter to crops and grasses and to decaying plant matter in soils. Due to the variation in their natural carbon sources, basidiomycetes have highly varied plant-polysaccharide-degrading capabilities. This topic is not as well studied for basidiomycetes as for asc...

The effects of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal fungi on nitrogen concentration of berseem clover were examined in contaminated soil with cadmium. Examined factors included: levels of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi inoculation (Glomus mosseae) (With and without inoculation), and different levels of soil contamination by cadmium (0, 5, 10, 20, 40 and 80 mg.kg-1). The results showed that the effects of cadmi...

Similar to mycorrhizal mutualists, the rhizospheric and endophytic fungi are also considered to act as active regulators of host fitness (e.g., nutrition and stress tolerance). Despite considerable work in selected model systems, it is generally poorly understood how plant-associated fungi are structured in habitats with extreme conditions and to what extent they contribute to improved plant pe...