Fungi occupy a myriad of niches. They can be free-living (indifferent) as saprophytes recycling nutrients in the natural environment and/or have a range of relationships (affectionate and deceitful) with insect, animal, or plant hosts. Interactions with plants can be a continuum and range from obligate biotrophy where fungi cannot be cultured outside living hosts to necrotrophy where fungi kill...

Aspergillus flavus is a common saprophyte and opportunistic pathogen that produces numerous secondary metabolites. The primary objectives of the A. flavus genomics program are to reduce and eliminate aflatoxin contamination in food and feed and to discover genetic factors that contribute to plant and animal pathogenicity. A. flavus expressed sequence tags (ESTs) and whole-genome sequencing have...

be associated with the development of T-reg cells and/or tolerance [5, 6]. We found that HSV infection conferred protection against atopy among Finnish children only. Besides the fact that atopy is infrequent in Russian Karelia, the overall exposure to microorganisms is overwhelming and the impact of saprophytes and other pathogens may well override the possible effects of HSV on the Russian side.

Distinct fungal species exhibit different cellular morphologies, such as yeast and filamentous (hyphal and pseudohyphal) forms, that are reflected in the macroscopic colony morphology. Dimorphic and multimorphic fungi can switch between these different morphologies, enabling the utilization of different food supplies in the case of saprophytes, and contributing to pathogenesis in the case of pa...

Recently one of the writers (Conn, 1938) proposed the name Rhizobiaceae for a family containing the genera Rhizobium, Alcaligenes, and Chromobacterium, together with certain species commonly placed today in the genus Phytomona8. This suggestion has been followed in the 5th edition of Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology. Inasmuch as the writer's paper above mentioned was published only...

Infections caused by non-neoformans Cryptococcus spp., including laurentii, previously thought to be saprophyte and non-pathogenic, have become more common during the past few years, particularly in immunocompromised hosts. To best of our knowledge here, we present first case meningitis an patient due a fungus that has never been reported Pakistan. Our patient, 40-year old male, who had acquire...

Rhodotorula spp. are capsulated, pigmented, ubiquitous basidiomycetous yeasts causing different superficial and deep-seated opportunistic infections in the debilitated and immunocompromised patient. Earlier considered as saprophytes, fungi belonging to this genus are now considered as emerging pathogens. This is a report of foot bleb infection due to Rhodotorula mucilaginosa in a diabetic patient.

The degradation of plant biomass by saprophytes is an ecologically important part of the global carbon cycle, which has also inspired a vast diversity of industrial enzyme applications. The xyloglucans (XyGs) constitute a family of ubiquitous and abundant plant cell wall polysaccharides, yet the enzymology of XyG saccharification is poorly studied. Here, we present the identification and molecu...

Tuberculosis is one of the grand old diseases and among the top burdened diseases of the world. Most Mycobacteria are environmental saprophytes except Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium leprae, which are obligate pathogens. However, several studies indicate that the selection of the pathogens in an ever changing environment do occur by a variety of deletion mutations over time. Mycoba...