Search results for " Fungal"

First investigation on the phytotoxicity of fungi involved in "botriosphaeria dieback" in Sicilian vineyards

2014

Values and challenges in the assessment of coprophilous fungi according to the IUCN Red List criteria: the case study of Poronia punctata (Xylariales…

2020

Coprophilous fungi are specialized microorganisms, playing key roles in ecosystems and in several other contexts, whose protection requires more substantial efforts. This paper aims to highlight and discuss valuable and critical aspects faced during the process of the threat status assessment of Poronia punctata, providing inspirations for future conservation actions.

Medicinal mushrooms: Valuable biological resources of high exploitation potential

2017

Higher Basidiomycetes and Ascomycetes mushrooms possess various immunological and anticancer properties. They also offer important health benefits and exhibit a broad spectrum of pharmacological activities including antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, cytotoxic, immunomodulating, anti-inflammatory, antioxidative, antiallergic, antidepressive, antihyperlipidemic, antidiabetic, digestive, hepatoprotective, neuroprotective, nephroprotective, osteoprotective, and hypotensive activities. This minireview summarizes the perspectives, recent advances, and major challenges of medicinal mushrooms with reference to their nutraceutical properties and dietary value, the production of mushroom biomass …

Give me a sample of air and I will tell which species are found from your region : Molecular identification of fungi from airborne spore samples

2017

Fungi are a megadiverse group of organisms, they play major roles in ecosystem functioning and are important for human health, food production and nature conservation. Our knowledge on fungal diversity and fungal ecology is however still very limited, in part because surveying and identifying fungi is time demanding and requires expert knowledge. We present a method that allows anyone to generate a list of fungal species likely to occur in a region of interest, with minimal effort and without requiring taxonomical expertise. The method consists of using a cyclone sampler to acquire fungal spores directly from the air to an Eppendorf tube, and applying DNA barcoding with probabilistic specie…

Sugiyamaella mastotermitis sp. nov. and Papiliotrema odontotermitis f.a., sp. nov. from the gut of the termites Mastotermes darwiniensis and Odontote…

2016

Two novel yeast species were isolated from the guts of two different termite species. A new member of the genus Sugiyamaella was isolated from the hindgut and nest material of the lower Australian termite Mastotermes darwiniensis. The second novel yeast species, isolated from the higher termite Odontotermes obesus, was identified as a member of the genus Papiliotrema. Both yeast species were able to hydrolyse xylan, methylumbelliferyl β-xylobiose and methylumbelliferyl β-xylotriose. The ability to debranch different hemicellulose side chains and growth without the addition of external vitamins was observed. A symbiotic role of the novel yeast species is indicated, especially in respect to x…

Unravelling the biosynthesis of pyriculol in the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae

2017

Pyriculol was isolated from the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae and found to induce lesion formation on rice leaves. These findings suggest that it could be involved in virulence. The gene MoPKS19 was identified to encode a polyketide synthase essential for the production of the polyketide pyriculol in the rice blast fungus M. oryzae. The transcript abundance of MoPKS19 correlates with the biosynthesis rate of pyriculol in a time-dependent manner. Furthermore, gene inactivation of MoPKS19 resulted in a mutant unable to produce pyriculol, pyriculariol and their dihydro derivatives. Inactivation of a putative oxidase-encoding gene MoC19OXR1, which was found to be located in the genome cl…

Fungal spore diversity reflects substrate-specific deposition challenges

2018

AbstractSexual spores are important for the dispersal and population dynamics of fungi. They show remarkable morphological diversity, but the underlying forces driving spore evolution are poorly known. We investigated whether trophic status and substrate associations are associated with morphology in 787 macrofungal genera. We show that both spore size and ornamentation are associated with trophic specialization, so that large and ornamented spores are more probable in ectomycorrhizal than in saprotrophic genera. This suggests that spore ornamentation facilitates attachment to arthropod vectors, which ectomycorrhizal species may need to reach lower soil layers. Elongated spore shapes are mo…

Expression properties exhibit correlated patterns with the fate of duplicated genes, their divergence, and transcriptional plasticity in Saccharomyco…

2017

Gene duplication is an important source of novelties and genome complexity. What genes are preserved as duplicated through long evolutionary times can shape the evolution of innovations. Identifying factors that influence gene duplicability is therefore an important aim in evolutionary biology. Here, we show that in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae the levels of gene expression correlate with gene duplicability, its divergence, and transcriptional plasticity. Genes that were highly expressed before duplication are more likely to be preserved as duplicates for longer evolutionary times and wider phylogenetic ranges than genes that were lowly expressed. Duplicates with higher expression lev…

Spoilage potential of Brettanomyces bruxellensis strains isolated from Italian wines

2018

Abstract Brettanomyces bruxellensis is an important wine spoilage agent. In this study a population of Brettanomyces strains isolated from Italian wines was thoroughly investigated to evaluate adaptability to wine conditions and spoilage potential. The presumptive isolates of Brettanomyces were identified at species level with 26S rRNA gene sequencing and species-specific PCR, and subsequently subjected to analysis of intra-species variability through the study of intron splice sites (ISS-PCR). Although, some strains were tracked in wines from different regions, extensive genetic biodiversity was observed within the B. bruxellensis population investigated. All strains were evaluated for the…

Diversity of macrofungi and exploitation of edible mushroom resources in the National Park “Appennino Lucano, Val D'Agri, Lagonegrese” (Italy)

2015

An investigation on the macrofungal diversity of the National Park “Appennino Lucano, Val D’Agri, Lagonegrese” (Basilicata, southern Italy) was carried out, together with an evaluation of wild edible mushrooms in agro-forest ecosystems and their possible exploitation as a new source of food and revenue in rural and under-developed areas of this region. An unpublished list of 249 mushroom taxa (229 Basidiomycota and 20 Ascomycota), mostly belonging to the genera Tricholoma, Tuber, Russula, Amanita, Boletus, Lactarius, Mycena, Agaricus, Clitocybe and Hygrophorus, growing in this important natural area is provided together with ecological characterization of the recorded specimens. Inonotus ob…