The beneficial endophytic fungus Piriformospora indica colonizes the roots of many plant species, including the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Its colonization promotes plant growth, development, and seed production as well as resistance to various biotic and abiotic stresses. In the present work, P. indica was tested as potential antagonist of the sedentary plant-parasitic nematode Heterode...

Charcoal rot, caused by Macrophomina phaseolina, is one of the most important diseases of soybean. Genetic variability among soybean isolates has been observed but the effect of host specialization on genetic variability has not been reported. In this work, isolates from soybean, corn and sunflower were evaluated based on cross inoculations and number of microsclerotia/g of roots. The highest a...

The mutualistic basidiomycete Piriformospora indica colonizes roots of mono- and dicotyledonous plants, and thereby improves plant health and yield. Given the capability of P. indica to colonize a broad range of hosts, it must be anticipated that the fungus has evolved efficient strategies to overcome plant immunity and to establish a proper environment for nutrient acquisition and reproduction...

The genetic diversity of fungal endophytes in root, bark and twigs of four medicinally important plants, Azadirachta indica, Holarrhena antidysenterica, Terminalia arjuna and T. chebula were examined. Thirty isolates of Pestalotiopsis and two isolates of Bartalinia robillardoides were genotypically compared by RAPD techniques and 241 reproducible polymorphic bands were obtained using 23 random ...

A microtiter plate-based enzyme immunoassay has been developed for phaseolinone, a phytotoxin isolated from the culture filtrate of the plant-pathogenic fungus Macrophomina phaseolina (Tassi) Goid. The smallest amount of phaseolinone detectable by the method is 5 pg per well. The method is validated by comparison with high-performance liquid chromatography and used to confirm and estimate phase...

Seed health testing by studying the seed-borne fungi of soybean seeds is an important step in the management of the seed-borne diseases. In the present study seed-borne fungi was studied by using agar plate method. A number of seed-borne fungal species was isolated from the agar plate. These seed-borne fungal sps. were Aspergillus niger, A. flavus, A. fumigatus, Chaetomium globosum, Curvularia ...

We report the first case of human infection with the fungal plant pathogen Macrophomina phaseolina in a Sri Lankan-born Canadian man following a renal transplant in India. The patient subsequently succumbed to invasive infection with Scytalidium dimidiatum. Molecular sequence analysis confirmed the identification of both fungi and revealed that they are related species within the ascomycete fam...

Piriformospora indica (Hymenomycetes, Basidiomycota) is a newly described cultivable endophyte that colonizes roots. Inoculation with the fungus and application of fungal culture filtrate promotes plant growth and biomass production. Due to its ease of culture, this fungus provides a model organism for the study of beneficial plant-microbe interactions and a new tool for improving plant product...