Some fungi with pleomorphic life-cycles still bear two names despite more than 20 years of molecular phylogenetics that have shown how to merge the two systems of classification, the asexual "Deuteromycota" and the sexual "Eumycota". Mycologists have begun to flout nomenclatorial regulations and use just one name for one fungus. The International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN) must chang...

The membrane filter, also known as molecular filter, is valuable for its ability to permit passage of large volumes of fluid and yet retain on its surface particles of bacterial size. The history of its development and some of its properties have been reviewed by Goetz and Tsuneishi (1951). Other properties and specifications are available from the manufacturers.3 At present details of manufact...

A novel filamentous fungus strain designated RB-1 was isolated into pure culture from Japanese rice field soil through an anaerobic role tube technique. The strain is a mitosporic fungus that grows in both aerobic and strict anaerobic conditions using various mono-, di-, tri-, and polysaccharides with acetate and ethanol productions. The amount of acetate produced was higher than that of ethano...

Ochratoxin A (OTA) is the main mycotoxin occurring in cocoa. A study was conducted in Cameroon to assess how filamentous fungi and toxigenesis were affected by the type of cocoa post-harvest treatment (boxes or heaps). The filamentous fungi isolated were almost identical when fermentation was carried out in boxes or heaps, with the presence of abundant black Aspergillus filamentous fungi: A. ni...

Filamentous fungi are of special interest for the production of various economically important metabolites. Up to now only a limited number of microfluidic systems for handling fungal organisms have been reported. Here a simple and disposable microfluidic chip-system for high-throughput growth and morphogenesis studies of filamentous fungi is presented. The device enables trapping of multiple s...

During a study several species of mitosporic fungi which have been collected from Guilan Province were examined and seven species viz.: Hansfordia pulvinata, Myriellina cydoniae, Phloeospora cf. ulmi, Questieriella sp., Sarcinella questieri, Septoria cf. castaneicola and Sirosporium mori were found to be new records for Iran mycoflora. Moreover, Sirosporium celtidis is described and illustrated...

Laccase belongs to a small group of enzymes called the blue multicopper oxidases, having the potential ability of oxidation. It belongs to enzymes, which have innate properties of reactive radical production, but its utilization in many fields has been ignored because of its unavailability in the commercial field. There are diverse sources of laccase producing organisms like bacteria, fungi and...

The micro-fungal flora of heavy metals contaminated peri-urban agricultural fields of Pakistan were investigated in terms of their diversity by soil serial dilution method. A total of 30 micro-fungi were isolated from 6 sampling sites. Of these isolates 24 belong to phylum Ascomycota, 3 to phylum Zygomycota, 2 to phylum Basidiomycota and 1 to phylum Deuteromycota. The most widespread genus was ...

With the incidence of Lyme disease increasing throughout the United States, reducing risk of exposure to the disease is of the utmost concern. In the northeastern U.S., the blacklegged tick, Ixodes scapularis, is the primary vector and the white-footed mouse, (Peromyscus leucopus), the primary reservoir for Borrelia burgdorteri, the bacterium causing Lyme disease. Targeting I. scapularis engorg...

Pollen samples collected in the spring of 2002 in 8 south-western Slovakia localities and 40 live individuals of bumblebee were analyzed for the presence of bacteria and microscopic fungi. Microorganisms occurring on pollen and bumblebees were identified using cultivation and microscopic methods supplemented with biochemical tests. In the pollen were found fermenting and non-fermenting Gram-neg...