RNA-dependent processes are essential to determine when, where, and how much of a protein is synthesized. In eukaryotes, these processes start with transcription in the nucleus and end with mRNA translation at distinct cytoplasmic sites followed by mRNA degradation [1]. In between, a number of defined steps occur such as 59 capping, splicing, polyadenylation, nuclear export, and cytoplasmic tra...

MAP kinases (mitogen-activated protein kinases) are activated by dual phosphorylation on specific threonine and specific tyrosine residues that are separated by a single residue, and the TXY activation motif is a hallmark of MAP kinases. In the fungus Ustilago maydis, which causes corn smut disease, the Crk1 protein, a kinase previously described to have roles in morphogenesis, carries a TXY mo...

Sugarcane smut is a fungal disease caused by Sporisorium scitamineum, which can cause severe economic losses in sugarcane industry. The infection depends on the mating of bipolar sporida to form a dikaryon and develops into hyphae to penetrate the meristematic tissue of sugarcane. In this study, we set to isolate bacterial strains capable of blocking the fungal mating and evaluate their potenti...

Ustilago maydis is a dimorphic fungus with a yeast-like non-pathogenic form and a filamentous (hyphal) pathogenic form that induces tumor formation in maize. Within mature tumors, hyphae give rise to teliospores, which are round, diploid cells surrounded by a specialized cell wall. Here we describe the time course of fungal development in the plant with a focus on the morphological changes in t...

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 the present study, previous reported smut fungi of Iran were reviewed. For this purpose, all specimens being present in the fungus section of Herbarium Ministerii Iranici Agriculturae "IRAN" as well as some newly collected ones were studied. Moreover, all taxonomic and or floristic papers so far published for smut fungi of Iran, were considered. Important characteristics such as: host plant(...

Pseudozyma spp. are yeast-like fungi, classified in the Ustilaginales, which are mostly epiphytic or saprophytic and are not pathogenic to plants. Several Pseudozyma species have been reported to exhibit biological activity against powdery mildews. However, previous studies have reported that Pseudozyma aphidis, which can colonize plant surfaces, is not associated with the collapse of powdery m...

BACKGROUND The a2 mating type locus gene lga2 is critical for uniparental mitochondrial DNA inheritance during sexual development of Ustilago maydis. Specifically, the absence of lga2 results in biparental inheritance, along with efficient transfer of intronic regions in the large subunit rRNA gene between parental molecules. However, the underlying role of the predicted LAGLIDADG homing endonu...