Rust fungi are destructive plant pathogens. The draft genomes of several wheat-infecting species have been released and potential pathogenicity genes identified through comparative analyses to fungal pathogens that are amenable to genetic manipulation. Functional gene analysis tools are needed to understand the infection process of these obligate parasites and to confirm whether predicted patho...

Six DNA regions were evaluated as potential DNA barcodes for Fungi, the second largest kingdom of eukaryotic life, by a multinational, multilaboratory consortium. The region of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 used as the animal barcode was excluded as a potential marker, because it is difficult to amplify in fungi, often includes large introns, and can be insufficiently variabl...

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi form mutualistic associations with most land plants and enhance phosphorus uptake of the host plants. Fungal viruses (mycoviruses) that possess a double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) genome often affect plant-fungal interactions via altering phenotypic expression of their host fungi. The present study demonstrates, for the first time, the presence of dsRNAs, which are h...

Soil microbes are major drivers of soil carbon cycling, yet we lack an understanding of how climate warming will affect microbial communities. Three ongoing field studies at the Harvard Forest Long-term Ecological Research (LTER) site (Petersham, MA) have warmed soils 5°C above ambient temperatures for 5, 8, and 20 years. We used this chronosequence to test the hypothesis that soil microbial co...

Fusarium head blight (FHB) caused by Fusarium graminearum is responsible for billions of dollars in agriculture losses. The goal of the present study was evaluation the expression of acidic chitinase, one of PR proteins, in wheat defense response against different FHB induced treatments in 'Falat' as a highly susceptible and 'Sumai3' as a tolerant cultivar. These treatments contained fungi extr...

A method for preparing elicitor-responsive protoplasts from grapevine cells kept in suspension culture was established. The protoplasts were employed in order to perform transient gene expression experiments produced by externally added plasmids. Using the gene coding for bacterial beta-glucuronidase as the reporter gene, the transient expression under the control of various promoters of stilbe...

A tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L. cv Samsun NN) cDNA clone coding the enzyme phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) was isolated from a cDNA library made from polyadenylated RNA purified from tobacco mosaic virus (TMV)-infected leaves. Southern analysis indicated that, in tobacco, PAL is encoded by a small family of two to four unclustered genes. Northern analysis showed that PAL genes are weakly expr...

Invasive fungal infections with high mortality rate are a growing health concern in hospitals and medical centers. The infection usually occurs in people with compromised immune systems. The purpose of this paper is a review of the most commonly prescribed antifungal drugs for invasive fungal diseases. Antifungals consist of the four main groups; polyenes, azoles, echinocandins and DNA an...

The entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana has a wide host range and is used as a biocontrol agent against arthropod pests. Mycoviruses have been described in phytopathogenic fungi while in entomopathogenic fungi their presence has been reported only rarely. Here we show that 21.3% of a collection of B. bassiana isolates sourced from worldwide locations, harbor dsRNA elements. Molecular cha...