Esca disease of grapevine is gaining increasing importance in Central European wine-growing countries. Several fungi, all of which are wood-inhabiting, were found to be associated with the disease. The taxa thought to act as main causal agents are the basidiomycete, Fomitiporia mediterranea, and, less frequently, the deuteromycetes, Phaeomoniella chlamydospora and Phaeoacremonium aleophilum. In...

The generally positive relationship between biodiversity of groups of directly or indirectly interacting organisms is one of the most important ecological concepts (Gaston, 2000 Nature, 405, 220-227; Scherber C, Eisenhauer N, Weisser WW et al., 2010 Nature, 468, 553-556). In a recent issue of Molecular Ecology, Gao C, Shi N-N, Liu Y-X et al. (2013: 22, 3403-3414) reported that the richness of p...

Multiplayer symbioses are common in nature, but our understanding of the ecological dynamics occurring in complex symbioses is limited. The tripartite mutualism between fungus-growing ants, their fungal cultivars, and antibiotic-producing bacteria exemplifies symbiotic complexity. Here we reveal how black yeasts, newly described symbionts of the ant-microbe system, compromise the efficiency of ...

Albinas Lugauskas, Jiirate Repeckiene, Jurgita Stakeniene Institute of Botany, ZalitU4. ezer4. St. 47, LT-2021 Vilnius, Lithuania, e-mail: [email protected]. [email protected] The diversity of fungi species spread on food products grown and processed under various ecological conditions were estimated during the researches carried out in 1998-2003. Fungi were isolated and identified from ...

In many semi-natural and natural ecosystems, mycorrhizal fungi are the most abundant and functionally important group of soil micro-organisms. They are almost wholly dependent on their host plants to supply them with photosynthate in return for which they enable the plant to access greater quantities of nutrients. Thus, there is considerable potential for plant communities to regulate the struc...

Orbilia querci, a new nematode-trapping fungus, was found on rotten wood of Quercus sp. in Huai-rou County, Beijing, China. It is characterized by having a tear-shaped spore body in the cylindrical ascospore. Pure culture was obtained from the ascospores. Conidiophores were simple or occasionally branched, bearing a single conidium on the tip. Conidia were spindle-shaped, mostly with 3-septa. N...

Conidia of the endoparasitic nematophagous fungus Drechmeria coniospora adhere to the sensory organs of many nematode species. In some cases the adhesion phase is followed by penetration of the nematode cuticle and subsequent infection. In a study of eight different nematode species and five strains of the fungus only two species were infected: Panagrellus vedivivus was infeted by all strains a...