OBJECTIVES Caspofungin, currently used as salvage therapy for invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA), strangely only causes morphological changes in fungal growth in vitro but does not inhibit the growth. In vivo it has good efficacy. Therefore the question arises how this in vivo activity is reached. Caspofungin is known to increase the amount of chitin in the fungal cell wall. Mammals produce...

BACKGROUND Autotoxicity of cucumber root exudates or decaying residues may be the cause of the soil sickness of cucumber. However, how autotoxins affect soil microbial communities is not yet fully understood. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS The aims of this study were to study the effects of an artificially applied autotoxin of cucumber, p-coumaric acid, on cucumber seedling growth, rhizospher...

Rice blast, caused by Magnaporthe grisea, is the most important fungal disease of cultivated rice worldwide. We have developed a strategy for creating disease resistance to M. grisea whereby pathogen-induced expression of the afp (antifungal protein) gene from Aspergillus giganteus occurs in transgenic rice plants. Here, we evaluated the activity of the promoters from three maize pathogenesis-r...

Nanocopper oxide (nanoCuO) is among the most widely used metal oxide nanoparticles which increases their chance of being released into freshwaters. Fungi are the major microbial decomposers of plant litter in streams. Fungal laccases are multicopper oxidase enzymes that are involved in the degradation of lignin and various xenobiotic compounds. We investigated the effects of nanoCuO (5 levels, ...

The soda lakes of Kenya provide an extreme environment where diverse groups of microorganisms thrive. They are characterized by great variation in temperature, halophillic and alkaliphilicextreme conditions. Lake Sonachi has been the study site for this research. The study sort to isolate, characterize and identify fungi, screen for potential exo-enzymes and secondary metabolites production tha...

The rising incidence of invasive fungal infections due to the expanding population of immunocompromised hosts and the increasing prevalence of fungal resistance has led to the need for novel antifungal agents. Posaconazole, a new member of the triazole class has demonstrated in vitro activity against a broad spectrum of fungi and clinical activity against various fungal pathogens, including Asp...

BACKGROUND Fungal amylase, mainly constitute of fungal α-amylase and glucoamylase, are utilized in a broad range of industries, such as starch hydrolysis, food and brewing. Although various amylases have been found in fungi, the amylases from Aspergillus dominate the commercial application. One of main problems exist with regard to these commercial use of amylases is relatively low thermal and ...

The application of photosensitizers for the treatment of fungal infections is a new and promising development within the field of photodynamic treatment (PDT). Dermatophytes, fungi that can cause infections of the skin, hair and nails, are able to feed on keratin. Superficial mycoses are probably the most prevalent of infectious diseases in all parts of the world. One of the most important rest...

Fungal isolate SATU 1 producing xylanase was isolated from decaying wood and soil sample collected from Tumkur region. The fungal isolate was identified by microscopic and other conventional methods. The selected potent fungal isolate SATU 1 was screened on Czepox dox agar containing (1% xylan) as a substrate. Isolate SATU 1 showed maximum zone of 46 mm on screening media. SATU1 showed maximum ...

We cloned a bacterial copper-containing nitrite reductase (NirK) homolog gene of Aspergillus oryzae (AonirK). Alignment showed that amino acid residues crucial for copper binding are conserved in the deduced sequence of the fungal protein. The recombinant protein exhibited distinct nitrite reductase activity, and its absorption and EPR spectra showed the presence of type 1 and type 2 copper ato...