production of lignocellulolytic enzymes by the thermotolerant fomes sp. eum1 was determined in solid cultures using corn stover (cs) as a sole substrate or supplemented with 20 % wheat bran (cs+wb). this supplementation increased (p< 0.05) enzymatic activity per gram of initial dry matter (gdm) for xylanases and cellulases: 160 iu g dm-1 and 37 iu g dm-1, respectively; while laccases reached a ...

All plants studied in natural ecosystems are symbiotic with fungi (1), which obtain nutrients while either positively, negatively, or neutrally affecting host fitness (2). Plant adaptation to selective pressures is considered to be regulated by the plant genome (3). To test whether mutualistic fungi contribute to plant adaptation, we collected 200 Dichanthelium lanuginosum plants from geotherma...

BACKGROUND Thermotolerance is an essential attribute for pathogenesis of Cryptococcus as exemplified by the fact that only two species in the genus, which can grow at 37°C, are human pathogens. Species which have other virulence factors including capsule formation and melanisation, but lack the ability to propagate at 37°C are not pathogenic. In another related fungal pathogen, Candida albicans...

The first case of endocarditis caused by Neosartorya fischeri var. spinosa is reported. The patient was a child who received a calf pericardium graft after removal of a previously inserted Dacron graft associated with deterioration of adjacent tissue. Copious vegetations removed from the heart were found to be composed of septate hyaline fungal filaments. The fungus was recognized in culture by...

Sporothrix brasiliensis is the main agent of zoonotic sporotrichosis transmitted by domestic cats in South America. In humans, commonly presents with cutaneous or lymphocutaneous lesions, and cats, multiple ulcerated skin lesions associated enlarged lymph nodes respiratory signs. Fungal virulence factors may affect clinical presentation mycoses. spp. present some factors. This study aims to com...

Candida glabrata is an emerging human fungal pathogen that is frequently drug tolerant, resulting in difficulties in treatment and a higher mortality in immunocompromised patients. The calcium-activated protein phosphatase calcineurin plays critical roles in controlling drug tolerance, hyphal growth, and virulence in diverse fungal pathogens via distinct mechanisms involving survival in serum o...

The molecular chaperone Hsp104 is a crucial factor in the acquisition of thermotolerance in yeast. Under stress conditions, the disaggregase activity of Hsp104 facilitates the reactivation of misfolded proteins. Hsp104 is also involved in the propagation of fungal prions. For instance, the well-characterized [PSI(+)] prion of Saccharomyces cerevisiae does not propagate in Deltahsp104 cells or i...

The ability to grow at mammalian body temperatures is critical for pathogen infection of humans. For the thermally dimorphic fungal pathogen Histoplasma capsulatum, elevated temperature is required for differentiation of mycelia or conidia into yeast cells, a step critical for invasion and replication within phagocytic immune cells. Posttranslational glycosylation of extracellular proteins char...

Many annotated fungal genomes harbour high proportions of hypothetical proteins with or without domains of unknown function (DUF). Here, three novel proteins (342-497 amino acids), each containing only a single large DUF1996 (231-250 residues) region with highly conserved head (DPIXXP) and tail (HXDXXXGW) signatures, were expressed as eGFP-tagged fusion proteins and shown to specifically locali...