The soil-borne ascomycete fungus Verticillium dahliae causes vascular wilt disease and can seriously diminish the yield and quality of important crops. Functional analysis of growth- and pathogenicity-related genes is essential for revealing the pathogenic molecular mechanism of V. dahliae. Phospholipase is an important virulence factor in fungi that hydrolyzes phospholipids into fatty acid and...

The aim was to investigate the antifungal effectiveness and some of pharmacological properties of essential oils (EOs), which had not yet been thoroughly studied in the planned scope. We first evaluated MIC/MFC of sixteen EOs against C. albicans ATCC 10231. Then, five most active EOs were tested, using 50 clinical Candida spp. strains and additional reference C. albicans ATCC 90028 strain. The ...

Metal contamination of the environment is frequently associated to the presence of two or more metals. This work aimed to study the impact of a mixture of metals (Cd, Pb and Zn) on the physiology of the non-conventional yeast Pichia kudriavzevii. The incubation of yeast cells with 5 mg/l Cd, 10 mg/l Pb and 5 mg/l Zn, for 6 h, induced a loss of metabolic activity (assessed by FUN-1 staining) and...

Using the set of Saccharomyces cerevisiae mutants individually deleted for 5718 yeast genes, we screened for altered sensitivity to the antifungal protein, K1 killer toxin, that binds to a cell wall beta-glucan receptor and subsequently forms lethal pores in the plasma membrane. Mutations in 268 genes, including 42 in genes of unknown function, had a phenotype, often mild, with 186 showing resi...

Aspergillus luchuensis is a kuro (black) koji fungus that has been used as a starch degrader for the awamori- and shochu-making industries in Japan. In this study, we investigated the effect of ion beam irradiation on A. luchuensis RIB2601 and obtained a high starch-degrading mutant strain U1. Strain U1 showed reduced growth rate, whereas it showed higher α-amylase, glucoamylase, and α-glucosid...

The Rho family of proteins and their effectors are key regulators involved in many eukaryotic cell functions. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae the family consists of six members, Rho1p to Rho5p and Cdc42p. With the exception of Rho5p, these enzymes have been assigned different biological functions, including the regulation of polar growth, morphogenesis, actin cytoskeleton, budding and secretion. He...

The purpose of this study is to determine the prevalence of tinea pedis and onychomycosis in children of elementary school age and to examine the socio-demographic attributes that may be effective in correlation of both mycoses. 3,390 female and 3,768 male children between ages 6-14 have been examined in seven schools. Skin scrapings and nail samples were taken from 13 students who were suspect...

Cell wall extracts from the double-mutant mnn1 mnn9 strain were used as the immunogen to obtain a monoclonal antibody (MAb), SAC A6, that recognizes a specific mannoprotein--which we have named Icwp--in the walls of cells of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Icwp runs as a polydisperse band of over 180 kDa in sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis analysis of Zymolyase extracts of ce...

Yeast MPT5 (UTH4) is a limiting component for longevity. We show here that MPT5 also functions to promote cell wall integrity. Loss of Mpt5p results in phenotypes associated with a weakened cell wall, including sorbitol-remedial temperature sensitivity and sensitivities to calcofluor white and sodium dodecyl sulfate. Additionally, we find that mutation of MPT5, in the absence of SSD1-V, is leth...

Aspergillus fumigatus is a filamentous fungus that can cause a life-threatening invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) in immunocompromised individuals. We previously characterized an exo-sialidase from A. fumigatus that prefers the sialic acid substrate, 2-keto-3-deoxy-D-glycero-D-galacto-nononic acid (Kdn); hence it is a Kdnase. Sialidases are known virulence factors in other pathogens; there...