The Ustilago maydis PYR3 gene encoding dihydroorotase activity was cloned by direct complementation of Escherichia coli pyrC mutations. PYR3 transformants of E. coli pyrC mutants expressed homologous transcripts of a variety of sizes and regained dihydroorotase activity. PYR3 also complemented Saccharomyces cerevisiae ura4 mutations, and again multiple transcripts were expressed in transformant...

The basidiomycete Ustilago maydis causes smut disease in maize, with large plant tumors being formed as the most prominent disease symptoms. During all steps of infection, U. maydis depends on a biotrophic interaction, which requires an efficient suppression of plant immunity. In a previous study, we identified the secreted effector protein Pit2, which is essential for maintenance of biotrophy ...

Fungal diseases of plants represent one of the most eminent threats to agriculture. Given the food needs of a growing world population and that more and more crops are devoted to fuel production, the necessity to develop crops with better resistance to disease is increasing. To accomplish this, the mechanisms that plant pathogenic fungi use to colonize plants need to be elucidated. As of now, t...

Secondary metabolites from fungi organisms have extensive past and present use in the treatment of many diseases and serve as compounds of interest both in their natural form and as templates for synthetic modification. Through high throughput screening (HTS) and bioassay-guided isolation, we isolated two bioactive compounds hamigerone (1) and radicinol (2). These compounds were isolated from f...

Stenocarpella maydis is the most prevalent ear rot pathogen of maize (Zea mays) in South Africa, the United States, and other countries. Infection and ultrastructure of propagules of S. maydis in maize were observed by light, scanning, and transmission electron microscopy. Two-celled conidia of S. maydis were found in the tissues of husk and kernels. Mycelia colonized inter- and intracellularly...

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the PMT, KRE2/MNT1, and MNN1 mannosyltransferase protein families catalyze the steps of the O-mannosylation pathway, sequentially adding mannoses to target proteins. We have identified members of all three families and analyzed their roles in pathogenesis of the maize smut fungus Ustilago maydis. Furthermore, we have shown that PMT4, one of the three PMT family memb...

In this study, 10 species of Bipolaris viz.B. bicolor, B. cynodontis, B. cylindrica, B. hawaiiensis,B. prieskaensis, B. sorghicola, B. sorokiniana,B. spicifera, B. zeae and B. zeicola and four species of Curvularia viz.C. fallax, C. heteropogonicola, C. inaequalis and C. lunata were identified on graminicolous species or soil. Bipolaris cylindrica, B. prieskaensis, B. zeae,C. fallax and C. hete...

SPECIFIC b ALLELES MATTER IN PHYTOPATHOGENIC USTILAGO MAYDIS Kavita Burman Aulakh

Grey leaf spot is a serious yield-reducing disease of maize (Zea mays) in many parts of the world where this crop is cultivated. The causal organism associated with the disease is Cercospora zeae-maydis. Two potential sibling species have been recognized as Groups I and II. The DNA sequences for the internal transcribed spacers (ITS1 & ITS2), the 5.8S rRNA gene, elongation factor 1-alpha, histo...

The biotrophic pathogen Ustilago maydis causes smut disease on maize (Zea mays) and induces the formation of tumours all aerial parts plant. Unlike in other interactions, no gene-for-gene interactions have been identified maize–U. pathosystem. Thus, resistance to U. is considered a polygenic, quantitative trait. Here, we study molecular mechanisms (QDR) maize, how interferes with its components...