The Halophilic Fungus Hortaea werneckii and the Halotolerant Fungus Aureobasidium pullulans Maintain Low Intracellular Cation Concentrations in Hypersaline Environments

The halophilic fungus Hortaea werneckii and the halotolerant fungus Aureobasidium pullulans maintain low intracellular cation concentrations in hypersaline environments.

Hortaea werneckii and Aureobasidium pullulans, black yeast-like fungi isolated from hypersaline waters of salterns as their natural ecological niche, have been previously defined as halophilic and halotolerant microorganisms, respectively. In the present study we assessed their growth and determined the intracellular cation concentrations of salt-adapted and non-salt-adapted cells of both speci...

Extremely Halotolerant and Halophilic Fungi Inhabit Brine in Solar Salterns Around the Globe

For a long time halotolerant and halophilic fungi have been known exclusively as contaminants of food preserved with high concentrations of either salt or sugar. They were first reported in 2000 to be active inhabitants of hypersaline environments, when they were found in man-made solar salterns in Slovenia. Since then, they have been described in different salterns and salt lakes on three cont...

Expression of green fluorescent protein in Aureobasidium pullulans and quantification of the fungus on leaf surfaces.

A red-shifted, mutated form of the jelly-fish green fluorescent protein (GFP) under control of a TEF promoter was expressed at high levels in the filamentous fungus Aureobasidium pullulans. In the three transformants studied, all morphotypes of the fungus, including pigmented chlamydospores, expressed GFP and fluoresced brightly. Confocal microscopy showed that the intra-cellular distribution o...

Ergosterol biosynthesis in novel melanized fungi from hypersaline environments.

Halotolerant and halophilic melanized fungi were recently described in hypersaline waters. A close study of the sterol composition of such fungi, namely Hortaea werneckii, Alternaria alternata, Cladosporium sphaerospermum, Cladosporium sp., and Aureobasidium pullulans revealed the dominance of ergosterol and the presence of 29 intermediates of its biosynthesis pathway. The presence or absence o...

CONTROL OF MOLECULAR WEIGHT DISTRIBUTION OF THE BIOPOLYMER PULLULAN PRODUCED BY THE FUNGUS Aureobasidium pullulans