Scedosporium spp. are saprobic fungi that cause serious infections in immunocompromised hosts and in near-drowning victims. Solid organ transplant recipients are at increased risk of scedosporiosis as they require aggressive immunosuppression to prevent allograft rejection. We present a case of disseminated Scedosporium apiospermum infection occurring in the recipient of a combined kidney and l...

We collected and mapped epigeous fruitbodies of both ectomycorrhizal (ECM) and saprobic fungi in an oldgrowth Quercus ilex L. Mediterranean forest within a permanent transect of 6400 m2 over three consecutive fruiting seasons. Out of 5382 fruitbodies, a total of 234 species were found, including 166 and 68 ECM and saprobic taxa, respectively. Both communities were mainly composed of rare specie...

Several fungi can assume either a filamentous or a unicellular morphology in response to changes in environmental conditions. This process, known as dimorphism, is a characteristic of several pathogenic fungi, e.g., Histoplasma capsulatum, Blastomyces dermatitidis, and Paracoccidioides brasiliensis, and appears to be directly related to adaptation from a saprobic to a parasitic existence. H. ca...

During an investigation of saprobic microfungi in leaf litter from an Australian rainforest, five new species of Thozetella, namely T. acerosa, T. boonjiensis, T. falcata, T. gigantea and T. queenslandica, were identified and these are described and illustrated here. The morphology of specimens derived from cultures grown under different conditions and from natural substrata was compared. DNA s...

During an investigation of saprobic microfungi in leaf litter from an Australian rainforest, five new species of Thozetella, namely T. acerosa, T. boonjiensis, T. falcata, T. gigantea and T. queenslandica, were identified and these are described and illustrated here. The morphology of specimens derived from cultures grown under different conditions and from natural substrata was compared. DNA s...

It has been estimated that the sister plant pathogenic fungal species Heterobasidion irregulare and Heterobasidion annosum may have been allopatrically isolated for 34-41 Myr. They are now sympatric due to the introduction of the first species from North America into Italy, where they freely hybridize. We used a comparative genomic approach to 1) confirm that the two species are distinct at the...

The Capnodiales incorporates plant and human pathogens, endophytes, saprobes and epiphytes, with a wide range of nutritional modes. Several species are lichenised, or occur as parasites on fungi, or animals. The aim of the present study was to use DNA sequence data of the nuclear ribosomal small and large subunit RNA genes to test the monophyly of the Capnodiales, and resolve families within th...

We have assembled a sequence database for 80 genera of Basidiomycota from the Hymenomycete lineage (sensu Swann & Taylor 1993) for a small region of the mitochondrial large subunit rRNA gene. Our taxonomic sample is highly biased toward known ectomycorrhizal (EM) taxa, but also includes some related saprobic species. This gene fragment can be amplified directly from mycorrhizae, sequenced, and ...

The dry olive residue (DOR) obtained from the olive oil extraction process has toxic components against plants and microorganism growth, particularly monomeric phenols. In this investigation nine saprobic fungi were found to be capable of completely removing these phenols from the solid after 20 weeks of growth, although the rate depended on the type of fungi and phenol. Results showed that mos...