A central feature of meiosis is the pairing and recombination of homologous chromosomes. Ustilago maydis, a biotrophic fungus that parasitizes maize, has long been utilized as an experimental system for studying recombination, but it has not been clear when in the life cycle meiotic recombination initiates. U. maydis forms dormant diploid teliospores as the end product of the infection process....

Several strains of Ustilago maydis, a causal agent of corn smut disease, exhibit a ‘killer’ phenotype that is due to persistent infection by double-stranded RNA Totiviruses. These viruses produce potent killer proteins that are secreted by the host. This is a rare example of virus/host symbiosis in that these viruses are dependent upon host survival and, to that end, produce antifungal proteins...

The biotrophic fungus Ustilago maydis, the causal agent of corn smut disease, uses numerous small secreted effector proteins to suppress plant defence responses and reshape the host metabolism. However, the role of specific effectors remains poorly understood. Here, we describe the identification of ApB73 (Apathogenic in B73), an as yet uncharacterized protein essential for the successful colon...

We investigated the prevalence of seed borne fungal pathogens in rice variety BRRI Dhan46 and to evaluate the efficacy of antagonistic bacteria in controlling seed borne disease. A composite sample of BRRI Dhan46 was assayed. Five seed borne fungi viz. Fusarium sp., Bipolaris oryzae, Curvularia sp., Gliocladium sp. and Aspergillus flavus were isolated from the rice seeds. Fifteen probable antag...

Ustilago maydis infection of Zea mays leads to the production of thick-walled diploid teliospores that are the dispersal agent for this pathogen. Transcriptome analyses of this model biotrophic basidiomycete fungus identified natural antisense transcripts (NATs) complementary to 247 open reading frames. The U. maydis NAT cDNAs were fully sequenced and annotated. Strand-specific RT-PCR screens c...

Many fungal pathogens undergo a yeast-hyphal transition during their pathogenic development that requires rearrangement of the cytoskeleton, followed by directed membrane traffic towards the growth region. The role of microtubules and their dynamic behavior during this process is not well understood. Here we set out to elucidate the organization, cellular role and in vivo dynamics of microtubul...

Maydis stigma is an important medicine herb used in many parts of the world for treatment of diabetes mellitus, which main bioactive ingredients are flavonoids. This paper describes for the first time a study on the comparative pharmacokinetics of six active flavonoid ingredients of Maydis stigma in normal and diabetic rats orally administrated with the decoction. Therefore, an efficient and se...

The maize smut fungus Ustilago maydis switches from yeast to hyphal growth to infect maize (Zea mays) plants. This switching is promoted by mating of compatible cells and seems to be required for plant penetration. Although many genes distinctively expressed during this dimorphic switch have been identified and shown to be essential for the infection process, none seems to be explicitly require...

Exchange between the nucleus and the cytoplasm is controlled by nuclear pore complexes (NPCs). In animals, NPCs are anchored by the nuclear lamina, which ensures their even distribution and proper organization of chromosomes. Fungi do not possess a lamina and how they arrange their chromosomes and NPCs is unknown. Here, we show that motor-driven motility of NPCs organizes the fungal nucleus. In...

In the corn smut fungus Ustilago maydis, pathogenic development is initiated when two compatible haploid cells fuse and form the infectious dikaryon. Mating is dependent on pheromone recognition by compatible cells. In this report, we set out to evaluate the relationship between the cell cycle and the pheromone response in U. maydis. To achieve this, we designed a haploid pheromone-responsive s...