Over the past 50 years the aetiology of purulent pericarditis has changed. Most cases used to be caused by Gram positive bacteria, but now there is a higher incidence of cases due to Gram negative bacteria and fungi.' Anaerobes are rarely found.' In the following case Bacteroides melaninogenicus, an anaerobic Gram negative bacillus, caused a purulent pericarditis secondary to a perforating tera...

Myricaria laxiflora is distributed along the riverbanks of the Yangtze River valley. The Three Gorges Dam has dramatically changed the habitat of M. laxiflora, which has evolved to develop increased resistance to flooding stress. In order to elucidate the relationship between plant endophytic fungi and flooding stress, we isolated and taxonomically characterized the endophytic fungi of M. laxif...

Members of the anaerobic gut fungi (AGF) reside in rumen, hindgut, and feces of ruminant and non-ruminant herbivorous mammals and reptilian herbivores. No protocols for gene insertion, deletion, silencing, or mutation are currently available for the AGF, rendering gene-targeted molecular biological manipulations unfeasible. Here, we developed and optimized an RNA interference (RNAi)-based proto...

Anaerobic fungi were isolated from both the rumen and faeces of nine sheep and a cow. A reliable and simple method for the isolation of anaerobic fungi using 24 h rumen incubated milled straw as the inoculum source was developed. We also evaluate the use of chitin measurements as an assay of rumen fungal biomass. Chitin levels were determined from various sample sources (milled barley straw use...

A better understanding of global ruminal microbiota and metabolites under extensive feeding conditions is a prerequisite for optimizing rumen function and improving ruminant feed efficiency. Furthermore, the gap between the information on the ruminal microbiota and metabolites needs to be bridged. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of a wide range of forage to concentrate rati...

Succinate is an interesting chemical for industries producing food and pharmaceutical products, surfactants, detergents and biodegradable plastics. Succinate is produced mainly by a mixed-acid fermentation process using anaerobically growing bacteria. However, succinate excretion is also widespread among fungi. In this article we report results on the intracellular concentration and the excreti...