Space represents an extremely harmful environment for life and survival of terrestrial organisms. In the last decades, a considerable deal of attention was paid to characterize the effects of spaceflight relevant radiation on various model organisms. The aim of this study was to test the survival capacity of the cryptoendolithic black fungus Cryomyces antarcticus CCFEE 515 to space relevant rad...

Carpropamid ((1RS,3SR)-2,2-dichloro-N-[(R)-1-(4-chlorophenyl)ethyl]-1-ethyl-3-methylcyclopropanecarboxamide) is a potent chemical against the rice blast fungus, Pyricularia oryzae. In 2001, isolates of the fungus with reduced sensitivity to this fungicide appeared in Saga Prefecture of Japan and were regarded as a potential threat to rice protection by carpropamid. The cause of the resistance h...

Disease resistance in transgenic plants has been improved, for the first time, by the insertion of a gene from a biocontrol fungus. The gene encoding a strongly antifungal endochitinase from the mycoparasitic fungus Trichoderma harzianum was transferred to tobacco and potato. High expression levels of the fungal gene were obtained in different plant tissues, which had no visible effect on plant...

The fungus Rhizopus oryzae which belong to the order Mucorales is a unique test agent to study the effects of metabolic alterations on infection since it behaves differently in the metabolically normal and abnormal host. This fungus was originally isolated at autopsy from a diabetic patient who died with cerebral mucormycosis.' We have shown in previously reported experiments that inoculation o...

Rhizoctonia solani is an important root infecting pathogen of a range of food staples worldwide including wheat, rice, maize, soybean, potato, legumes and others. Conventional resistance breeding strategies are hindered by the absence of tractable genetic resistance in any crop host. Understanding the biology and pathogenicity mechanisms of this fungus is important for addressing these disease ...

We have studied compensatory evolution in a fludioxonil resistant mutant of the filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans. In an evolution experiment lasting for 27 weeks (about 3000 cell cycles) 35 parallel strains of this mutant evolved in three different environmental conditions. Our results show a severe cost of resistance (56%) in the absence of fludioxonil and in all conditions the mutant s...

Underlying acquired immunity to the fungus Candida albicans is usually present in adult immunocompetent individuals and is presumed to prevent mucosal colonization progressing to symptomatic infection. Exploration of immunological events leading to Candida resistance or susceptibility has indicated the central role of the innate and adaptive immune systems, the relative contribution of which ma...

Phenylphenalenones, polycyclic aromatic natural products from some monocotyledonous plants, are known as phytoalexins in banana (Musa spp.). In this study, (1) H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based metabolomics along with liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry were used to explore the chemical responses of the susceptible 'Williams' and the resistant 'Khai Thong Ruang' Musa varieties to...

An estimated 90% of terrestrial plants form symbiotic associations with soil fungi, and the majority of those plant species belong to families that characteristically form associations with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi (Smith & Read, 1997). The function of these associations is largely based upon the transfer of carbon (C) from the plant to the fungus, and upon the transfer of mineral nutr...

background and objectives: septoria leaf blotch disease (stb) caused by the fungus mycosphaerella graminicola (fuckel) j. schroeter (anamorph: septoria tritici roberge), is one of the most destructive foliar diseases of wheat in the world, that its worldwide damage in outburst years is about 30 to 50 per cent. the pathogen is a bipolar heterotallic ascomycete that its sexual life cycle is repea...